Principles of Patent Law: Cases and Materials

Principles of Patent Law provides comprehensive coverage of the policies, laws, rules, and practices of the U.S. patent system in a format accessible to students, lawyers, government officials, and business people. The Eighth Edition builds on the strengths of prior editions in combining discussions of the law and theory of patents with instructive case materials.

The Eighth Edition marks a milestone. This edition comes just over twenty-five years after the first edition of Principles of Patent Law. Updates include newly added excerpts from (1) Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., 139 S. Ct. 628 (2019), on the scope of prior art for purposes of assessing the novelty and nonobviousness of a claimed invention; (2) Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, 143 S. Ct. 1243 (2023), on the relationship between the scope of patent claims and the requirement of an enabling disclosure; (3) Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene's Energy Group, LLC, 138 S. Ct. 1365 (2018), on the constitutionality of post-issuance proceedings in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may cancel previously issued patent claims; and (4) Ericsson, Inc. v. D-Link Systems, Inc., 773 F.3d 1201 (Fed. Cir. 2014), on reasonable royalties for standard-essential patents. With judicious cuts offsetting new additions, the length of Principles of Patent Law has remained substantially the same across the Seventh and Eighth Editions. We hope that we have thereby succeeded in preserving the Seventh Edition's spryness while still staying true to the First Edition's vision. See more