“Driveshaft Case Brings More Confusion To Patent Eligibility” (featured quotes)

August 6, 2020
Law360

Partner Ryan J. Schermerhorn was recently quoted in Law360's article "Driveshaft Case Brings More Confusion To Patent Eligibility," discussing the Federal Circuit's latest opinion on patent eligibility.

"If you're challenging a patent in litigation, I think you'd be crazy not to at least raise that issue, and say, hey, there's a natural law here," Ryan said. "If they can get Hooke's law out of this claim, I'm sure you can get all sorts of natural laws out of other claims."

He noted that the Supreme Court's holding that abstract ideas are not patent-eligible has led to numerous software and electronics patents being invalidated for claiming only such ideas, so he expects the mechanical patents he often works with to now face similar attacks.

"It's quite scary," he said. "I try not to buy into the 'sky is falling' type of thing, but seeing what's happened in the electrical space, I fear that the same thing is going to happen here in the mechanical space."

Offsite Notice

By clicking “Proceed” below, you will be opening a new browser window and leaving our website.