Federal Circuit Widens Jurisdiction Over Some Anti-SLAPP Appeals

Denials of California anti-SLAPP motions are immediately appealable in patent-related cases, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, vacating a district court’s denial of the motion.

The lower court erred in denying the anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation motion to strike from Newport Fab LLC and its co-defendants since it failed to complete the necessary two-step analysis to determine whether an alleged injury arose from a patent application, Judge Todd M. Hughes said. The district court must re-hear the motion and determine if the plaintiff IQE PLC has a probability of prevailing on its trade secret claim.

The district court’s ...