Opinions — Friday, July 31, 2026

The Federal Circuit affirmed the Board's denial of Pfizer's motion to amend claims 48 and 49 of U.S. Patent 9,492,559, which covers pneumococcal vaccine compositions containing multiple serotypes of S. pneumoniae conjugated to a carrier protein. The case returned on remand after the court previously held that the Board had provided only conclusory statements regarding whether proposed substitute claims 48 and 49 would have been obvious, specifically as to a limitation requiring "more than a 2-log increase above baseline in serum IgG levels" across all serotypes. On remand, the Board found the claims obvious over prior art references including Hausdorff, Merck-086, and GSK-711.

The court's analysis focused on whether substantial evidence supported the Board's reasonable expectation of success finding for the 2-log increase limitation as applied to additional serotypes (15B, 33F, 12F, 10A, 11A, and 8) not specifically tested in the prior art. The Board relied on three pieces of evidence: Hausdorff's Table 3 showing the 2-log increase for thirteen of fourteen serotypes in a related composition, expert testimony that practitioners would seek to increase IgG levels to improve immunogenicity, and expert testimony that adding serotypes to CRM197 conjugates was possible without negatively affecting other vaccine components. The court emphasized that reasonable expectation of success does not require a guarantee or absolute certainty, and found this evidence adequate to support obviousness of composition claims reciting known serotypes despite the absence of specific immunogenicity data for each added serotype.

In RJ Technology LLC v. Apple Inc., the Federal Circuit granted appellant's unopposed motion for voluntary dismissal of an appeal from Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions in IPR2023-01183 and IPR2024-00597, construing the motion under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b), with each party to bear its own costs.

The Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Leica Microsystems in a dispute with the Regents of the University of Michigan over U.S. Patent No. 7,277,169, which relates to fluorescence detection systems using supercontinuum white light lasers. The central issue was whether the asserted claims require that the entire spectrum of white light reach and excite the fluorophores in the sample, or whether filtered, discrete wavelengths suffice—a question resolved through claim construction.

The court's analysis turned on the anaphoric term "said supercontinuum white light pulse," which the panel found necessarily incorporates its antecedent basis: "a supercontinuum white light pulse comprising an entire spectrum of white light." The court emphasized the claims' explicit distinction between the "entire" supercontinuum and "a portion" thereof in dependent claim language, reasoning that the patentee knew how to claim partial spectra but chose not to for the disputed limitations. Prosecution history proved particularly significant: Michigan had distinguished its invention from prior art teaching "discrete, selected wavelengths" by repeatedly emphasizing use of "the entire spectrum" to excite fluorophores, which the court found dispositive in affirming the construction and the resulting noninfringement determination.

RJ Technology LLC v. Apple Inc., No. 2025-1695, is a voluntary dismissal under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b) of an appeal from a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision in IPR2023-01350. The Federal Circuit granted RJ Technology's unopposed motion to dismiss the appeal as moot, with each party to bear its own costs.