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General Statements Regarding Known Structures are Insufficient to Support Means-Plus-Function Claims

Client Alert | 1 min read | 06.20.07

In Biomedino, LLC v. Waters Technologies Corp. (No. 2006-1350, June 18, 2007) the Federal Circuit affirms a district court’s invalidity determination based on the finding that the recited “control means for automatically operating valving” fails to satisfy the requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6. The parties agreed on the applicable claim function, as well as the fact that the only references in the specification to the “control means” are a box labeled “Control” in one of the figures, and a statement that the valving “may be controlled automatically by known differential pressure, valving and control equipment.” Thus, the issue before the Federal Circuit was whether this limited structural disclosure is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6.

Based on the underlying principle that a patentee need not disclose details of structures well known in the art, the patentee argued that the inquiry should be whether one skilled in the art would have identified the relevant structure from the provided description. The Federal Circuit panel disagrees, however, and concludes that “the relevant inquiry is whether one skilled in the art would understand the specification itself to disclose a structure, not simply whether that person would be capable of implementing a [known] structure.” As such, the court finds the bare statement relating to known techniques for “automatically operating valving” is insufficient to satisfy the requirements of § 112, ¶ 6.

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Client Alert | 6 min read | 03.26.24

California Office of Health Care Affordability Notice Requirement for Material Change Transactions Closing on or After April 1, 2024

Starting next week, on April 1st, health care entities in California closing “material change transactions” will be required to notify California’s new Office of Health Care Affordability (“OHCA”) and potentially undergo an extensive review process prior to closing. The new review process will impact a broad range of providers, payers, delivery systems, and pharmacy benefit managers with either a current California footprint or a plan to expand into the California market. While health care service plans in California are already subject to an extensive transaction approval process by the Department of Managed Health Care, other health care entities in California have not been required to file notices of transactions historically, and so the notice requirement will have a significant impact on how health care entities need to structure and close deals in California, and the timing on which closing is permitted to occur....