Welcome to Skilled in the Art. I'm Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham. Here's what's on my radar today:

• U.S. fires back at Gilead on HIV vaccine but "reserves all rights" to raise unnamed PTAB defenses.

• Former PTAB colleagues square off over medical patent.

• Fenwick and Amazon try to rescue Best Buy from camera patent suit.

• DLA Piper and Haynes and Boone add IP attorneys.

As always you can email me your feedback and follow me on Twitter.

Have Feds Taken Best Shot in HIV Patent War?

The federal government has fired back on two fronts against Gilead Sciences in the war over an HIV vaccine. But it appears to be leaving some bullets in the chamber.

The government sued Gilead in Delaware federal court last week, accusing the Foster City, California-based biopharma of infringing four Health and Human Services patents on methods of using Gilead's Truvada to prevent HIV infection. The methods are known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP).

Gilead has already petitioned the PTAB to invalidate two of the government's PrEP patents as obvious. The company argues that AIDS research organizations and the Centers for Disease Control described the use of Truvada to prevent HIV more than a year before the government applied for its patents in 2006.

On Friday the government responded, arguing that its patents could hardly be obvious given the many years researchers tried but failed to develop a safe and effective vaccine. "For over two decades, none succeeded," the government argues in a response signed by Walter Brown of DOJ's IP section. "During that time, over 25 million people died due to AIDS."

How's that for long felt but unmet need?

As recently as 2013, the government notes, Gilead representatives were telling The New Yorker that it didn't see PrEP "as a commercial opportunity" and that the "role of antiretrovirals in HIV prevention [was] not yet defined and not yet broadly accepted."

That's hardly obvious, Brown and his colleagues argue. "There was significant skepticism in the HIV field, notably Petitioner's own," they write.

Perhaps surprisingly, the government did not assert its sovereign immunity. DOJ did, however, include a vague "reservation of rights" on the last page of its response. "Patent Owner reserves all rights to raise defenses and to seek to dismiss this proceeding," is all the brief states on the subject.

Of course, the government is fighting state sovereign immunity at the PTAB, and to preserve the constitutionality of APJ appointments and the application of IPRs to pre-AIA patents. It looks as if Uncle Sam wants to hedge its bets in case those positions don't carry the day.

Gilead is represented by Sidley Austin.

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Left to right, Covington's Scott Kamholz and Wilson Sonsini's Lora Green and Richard Torczon.

Battle of the PTAB Stars

Some former PTAB colleagues are squaring off before the board in a bio-medical patent showdown.

Lora Green and Richard Torczon of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represent Palette Life Sciences, a Swedish company that licenses a product called Barrigel to Nestle Skin Health. Barrigel is a biodegradable injectable treatment that protects the rectal wall during radiation treatment for prostate cancer. It's approved for treatment in Europe but isn't for sale yet in the U.S.

In the meantime, Palette is trying to clear out a couple of U.S. patents held by Incept LLC. They recite methods of injecting biodegradable fillers such as collagen to add separation between radiated tissue and surrounding healthy tissue. Palette has filed four IPR petitions targeting two Incept patents. Covington's Scott Kamholz and Jennifer Robbins entered appearances last week on behalf of Incept.

Before joining their firms Green, Torczon and Kamholz did stints as PTAB APJs, overlapping for a few years during the first half of this decade. Kamholz and Green even presided together on some IPR panels. So this presumably will be a collegial but adversarial proceeding.

As the Arthrex Turns

In the meantime, Torczon has penned on IP Watchdog a searing and very readable critique of Judge Kimberly Moore's Arthrex decision. That's the decision that's put the constitutionality of PTAB judges in doubt. The takeaway is that the bad old days of "panel stacking" weren't really so bad—and actually are the more transparent and already legally approved solution to the appointments problem.

Who Got the Work

Inventor-owned Corydoras Technologies LLC holds patents on mobile devices with front-facing cameras that can be used as "digital mirrors." Japanese inventor Iwao Fujisaki formed Corydoras in 2006, according to research from defensive patent aggregator RPX Corp., and has assigned many of his 150 patents to the company.

Since 2015 Corydoras has sued a handful of technology companies in the Eastern District of Texas, settling with at least one (ASUSTeK Computer) for the princely sum of $2,000. But after Corydoras sued retailer Best Buy over the sale of Amazon Fire tablets in September, the e-commerce giant dispatched one of its preferred patent counsel to play offense.

Amazon.com and Fenwick & West sued Corydoras on Monday for declaratory judgment of non-infringement in the Western District of Texas, seeking to "once and for all remove the cloud of uncertainty that has been cast over the Amazon Accused Products."

Cordoryas is represented in all of the litigation by Capshaw DeRieux's Elizabeth DeRieux. She's joined in most cases by Capshaw's Daymon Rambin; Ted Polasek of Elliott & Polasek; Otis Carroll and Deborah Race of Ireland Carroll & Kelley; and Dale Quisenberry of Quisenberry Law.

Fenwick's J. David Hadden represents Amazon along with the firm's Saina Shamilov and Ravi Ranganath, with help from Barry Shelton of Shelton Coburn. ASUSTek was represented by Lionel Lavenue of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner.

Apple was represented by DLA Piper's John Allcock, John Guaragna, Christine Corbett, Brent Yamashita, Katherine Cheung and Krista Grewal. Also representing Apple were Hannah Lynn Cannom of Walker Stevens Cannom and Melissa Smith of Gillam & Smith.

Fish & Richardson's Ruffin Cordell, Ricardo Bonilla, Anthony Van Nguyen, Jackob Ben-Ezra and Karrie Wheatley represented Samsung Electronics along with Wasif Qureshi of Jackson Walker and Melissa Smith of Gillam & Smith. A Fish team comprising Ben-Ezra and Michael McKeon, Scott Elengold, and Christian Chu represented LG Electronics. Huawei and Huawei Device USA were represented by Klemchuk LLP's Mark Perantie, Aaron Davidson, Gary Sorden and Timothy Craddock, along with in-house attorney Steven Geiszler.

Motorola Mobility was represented by Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton's Taylor Ludlam, Steven Moore and Alton Absher along with Deron Dacus and Peter Kerr of The Dacus Firm.

InterDigital Settles FRAND IoT Case

InterDigital has settled its FRAND dispute with Swiss cellular module maker u-blox in one of the first of what will be many SEP disputes involving connected cars.

U-blox sued on New Year's Day, accusing InterDigital of seeking "exorbitant" royalties on 2G, 3G and 4G patents. U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo had rejected out of hand u-blox's demand for a TRO to prevent InterDigital from telling u-blox's customers it was unlicensed. But she also ignored InterDigital's repeated suggestions that the dispute be assigned to private ADR. The case had been scheduled for trial a little over a year from now.

With a discovery deadline approaching, the parties notified the court Nov. 4 that u-blox has taken a license and that all claims and counterclaims have been withdrawn.

The parties had little comment. "We were happy to reach an agreement with a long-time customer," InterDigital's chief communications officer, Patrick Van de Wille, said.

U-blox was represented by a Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton team comprising Stephen Korniczky, Martin Bader, Matthew Holder, Ericka Jacobs Schulz, Daniel Brown, Ryan Cunningham, Eric Gill and Patrick McGill.

InterDigital was represented by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's David Steuer, Michael Levin, Maura Rees, Natalie Morgan, Lucy Yen and Ryan Smith.

IP Lateral — DLA Piper

Erica Kuo has joined DLA Piper's New York office as of counsel. Kuo's practice centers on strategic patent counseling with a focus on pharmaceutical patent litigation. She's worked previously at Goodwin Procter and Haner & Kuo, among others.

Kuo has a bachelor's in chemistry from MIT and a master's in the subject from UC-Berkeley. "Along with her valuable legal experience, Erica's strong chemistry background allows her to represent clients on their most technically challenging life sciences issues," Michael Furrow, DLA Piper's US chair of life sciences patent strategy, said in a written statement.

IP Lateral —Haynes and Boone

Eugene Goryunov has joined Haynes and Boone from Kirkland & Ellis. Goryunov will lead Haynes and Boone's Chicago post-grant review trials practice.

Goryunov has appeared in more than 200 trials at the PTAB, serving as first-chair counsel in more than half. He also handles litigation in district courts, the ITC and before the Federal Circuit.

Haynes and Boone's PTAB practice ranks second among petitioner's counsel in Unified Patents' rankings.

"We are endeavoring to meet the needs of our clients by adding talented practitioners like Eugene, who has a highly regarded practice handling patent trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board," Partner David McCombs said in a written statement.

"Haynes and Boone was very attractive to me given its industry recognition and reputation in post-grant review trials," Goryunov said. "I am excited to join the firm's growing Chicago office."

In June the firm hired partners Ralph Gabric and Laura Beth Miller from Brinks Gilson & Lione.

That's all from Skilled in the Art today. I'll see you all again on Friday.