Intellectual Property Law and Copyright Laws

Patent claims using general terms of approximation such as “about” or “approximately” may be at risk of invalidation when the terms are not well-defined. In a recent patent infringement case, Enviro Tech...

On May 11, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Bissell, Inc. v. International Trade Commission, affirming the ITC’s final determination in Investigation No. 337-TA-1304, preventing respondent Tineco from importing its original wet/dry surface cleaning device but allowing the importation of its redesigned devices. Among other issues, the court held that an ITC expert may rely on source code produced in discovery even if the source code is never introduced as a hearing exhibit.

The Northern District of Illinois granted a summary judgment motion of no invalidity based on indefiniteness because the qualitative terms like “sufficiently slow” and “desired period of time” were...