Indefiniteness After in re Packard and Nautilus

Partner Steve Maebius spoke at an Intellectual Property Owners Association webinar on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. The program was titled, “Indefiniteness After In re Packard and Nautilus.”

This webinar was designed to help IP practitioners understand the bottom line for patent practice of this spring’s two important appellate decisions addressing the standard for indefiniteness under §112. The Federal Circuit’s In re Packard decision reinforced the notion that, at the USPTO, the burden of patent clarity falls on patent applicants. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Nautilus dealt with the indefiniteness standard for granted patents, rejecting the Federal Circuit’s “insolubly ambiguous” standard as permitting too much imprecision.