A recent federal court decision in McKee Foods Corp. v. BFP Inc. declared that Tennessee’s “any willing pharmacy” requirement was preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. This decision impacts self-funded group health plans, potentially allowing them to comply with a single set of rules nationwide rather than navigating conflicting state
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Royal Play Penalty: No Standing in the End (Zone)
By Amit Kumar Saha & PhD
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed an appeal from the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board, finding that the appellant lacked standing because it failed to allege any actual and particularized injury. Michael J. Messier v. New Orleans Louisiana Saints, LLC, Case No. 24-2271 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 14, 2025) (per curiam) (Moore,…
PTO Accelerates Patent Issuance Timeline
By Amol Parikh
The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) announced that it has shortened the time between the issue notification and the issue date for patents. Historically, the time between these two events averaged about three weeks. Seeking to provide earlier protection for inventions, the PTO intends to reduce that time to about two weeks. The PTO…
Broadcast Alert! Applying Conventional Machine Learning to New Data Isn’t Patent Eligible
By Jodi Benassi
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s ruling that patents applying established machine learning methods to new data are not patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. §101. Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp. et al., Case No. 23-2437 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 18, 2025) (Dyk, Prost, Goldberg, JJ.) Recentive sued Fox,…
Transatlantic Terminology: Skilled Artisan Could Equate UK, US Word Meanings
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a Patent Trial & Appeal Board unpatentability determination, finding that a skilled artisan would have found the term “sterile” in a UK publication to mean the same as the term “sterilized” in the United States. Sage Products LLC v. Stewart, Case No. 23-1603 (Fed. Cir.…
The Employee Retention Credit: IRS’s “Risking” Model Faces Legal Challenge
Case: ERC Today LLC et al. v. John McInelly et al., No. 2:24-cv-03178 (D. Ariz.) In an April 2025 order, the US District Court for the District of Arizona denied a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by two tax preparation firms. The firms sought to halt the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) use of an…
This Week in 340B: April 15 – 21, 2025
Find this week’s updates on 340B litigation to help you stay in the know on how 340B cases are developing across the country. Each week we comb through the dockets of more than 50 340B cases to provide you with a quick summary of relevant updates from the prior week in this industry-shaping body of…
Trending in Telehealth: March 2025
In recent telehealth news, the governor of Mississippi has signed SB 2415 into law, which mandates that health insurance plans cover telemedicine services to the same extent as in-person consultations. The bill also requires that all health insurance and employee benefit plans in Mississippi reimburse out-of-network providers for telemedicine services under the same reimbursement policies…
Let the Shakedowns Begin: Tax False Claims Legislation in California
Legislators in Sacramento, California, are mulling over one of the most (if not the most) troubling state and local tax bills of the past decade. Senate Bill (SB) 799, introduced earlier this year and recently amended, would expand the California False Claims Act (CFCA) by removing the “tax bar,” a prohibition that exists in the…
Senate Committee Advances Bills to Tackle High Drug Prices, Enhance Market Competition
The US Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced six bills aimed at reducing pharmaceutical prices and improving market competitiveness. These bills address various issues, including limiting the number of patents a biologics license holder can assert in litigation, clarifying the boundaries of permissible settlements in “pay for delay” agreements, and preventing “product hopping” by branded drug…