In a recent March 17, 2025 summary judgment order, federal district court Judge Georgette Castner in the District of New Jersey invalidated a patent that had been filed before the 2011 America Invents Act (AIA) upon finding that a key feature of the invention, a pressure-activated cooling composition, had been created in a foreign factory rather than by the sole inventor named in the patent.  Under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(f), “[a] person shall be entitled to a patent unless . . . he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented.”

A federal magistrate judge in the Southern District of Florida recently recommended sanctioning local counsel for allowing out-of-state lead counsel, who was not qualified in Florida and had never made an appearance to move the court for pro hac vice admission, to take the steering wheel as a backseat driver in a patent infringement lawsuit that was quickly dismissed for procedural missteps.