January 13, 2022

Patent Attorney Bryan Wheelock to Participate in Strafford CLE Webinar on the Expectation of Success Doctrine

St. Louis patent attorney Bryan Wheelock will participate in an upcoming CLE webinar hosted by Strafford. The webinar, which takes place Thursday, January 13 at 1:00 PM EST, is titled “Patents and the Expectation of Success Doctrine.”

A panel of attorneys will explore several important points regarding the expectation of success doctrine, including how much is reasonably needed and the tension between the doctrine and enablement. The panel will also offer best practices for patent drafting and patent prosecution in light of these points.

Further, the panel will review and discuss a number of relevant Federal Circuit decisions, including:

  • OSI Pharmaceuticals v. Apotex(Fed. Cir. 2019), which highlights the importance of a reasonable expectation of success in the obviousness analysis.
  • Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Actavis L.L.C. (Fed. Cir. 2019), where the Federal Circuit held that a prior art reference that discloses a goal but not an explanation of how to reach that goal does not provide a reasonable expectation of success.
  • Allergan Sales L.L.C. v. Sandoz Inc., (Fed. Cir. 2019), in which the Federal Circuit explained that a showing of expectation of success must be met for functional aspects of a claimed invention as well.
  • University of Strathclyde v. Clear-Vue Lighting(Fed. Cir. 2021), in which the Federal Circuit emphasized that a reasonable expectation of success requires more than the mere possibility of the claimed result.

The webinar will take place Thursday, January 13, 2022 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM EST.

Learn more and register for the CLE webinar on the Strafford website.