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.”

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois recently dismissed a putative class action complaint alleging the term “natural” on Fiji Water bottle labels is false and misleading due to alleged microplastics contained in the water, because the plaintiffs failed to provide specific evidence to plausibly establish such contamination.