Legal observers say a judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upholding a patent appeals board ruling is a signal that a very minor alteration to an existing design patent is enough to uphold another design patent.

Legal observers say a judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upholding a patent appeals board ruling is a signal that a very minor alteration to an existing design patent is enough to uphold another design patent.

Less than a week after another scathing scientific report dismissing the theory that vaccines and autism are linked made international headlines, an en banc state Superior Court panel remanded the products liability case of an 11-year-old autistic boy, directing a Philadelphia trial court to determine whether the design defect claim arose from unavoidable vaccine side effects.

In a pharmaceutical liability case of first impression, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that plaintiffs can sue pharmaceutical companies for negligence in the design of their products. The three-judge panel’s decision in Lance v. Wyeth was just the latest in a trio of significant Superior Court opinions affecting pharmaceutical litigation — and the results, coming in three cases dealing with diet drug litigation, are a mixed bag for both the plaintiffs and defense bars.

A federal judge has thrown out a trade dress suit that the manufacturer of Dixie Cups filed against Huhtamaki Americas, the maker of Chinet, over the design of an insulated paper cup. U.S. District Judge Timothy C.