Fresh From the Bench: Latest Precedential Patent Case
Contributed by Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt. Originally published on Patexia; republished here as part of the LexDana archive.
CASE OF THE WEEK
Eye Therapies, LLC v. Slayback Pharma, LLC, Appeal No. 2023-2173 (Fed. Cir. June 30, 2025)
In its only precedential patent opinion last week, the Federal Circuit reviewed construction of the transitional claim phrase “consisting essentially of” in a patent for eyedrops owned by Eye Therapies, LLC. Following an inter partes review in which the Patent Trial and Appeal Board found all claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,293,742 unpatentable as obvious, the Court found that the Board had erred by applying the typically open-ended meaning of “consisting essentially of” in view of the patent’s prosecution history, vacated the Board’s obviousness finding, and remanded for further proceedings.
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