On August 16, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati victory for Palette Life Sciences, Inc. against two medical-device patents. Palette provides injectable, biodegradable spacers for protecting non-target organs from radiation treatments. Wilson Sonsini successfully challenged the two broad Incept LLC patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) on both anticipation and obviousness grounds. Incept appealed both decisions, challenging the anticipation and obviousness analyses, including arguments on teaching away and commercial success. At the Federal Circuit, Judge Schall (joined by Judge Taranto) affirmed the PTAB’s decisions, with a partial dissent from Judge Newman, who would have remanded some of the claims for further consideration by the PTAB. With this win, more cancer patients will have access to this important protective technology.

Wilson Sonsini partner T.O. Kong argued the case at the PTAB and the Federal Circuit, with support from Tasha Thomas, Lori Westin, Rick Torczon, Kathryn Robinson, and Robyn Moriarty.

For more information, please see this Law360 article.