Flex Magazine Ad Invalidates Patent

WASHINGTONOn Nov. 19 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling in Iovate Health Sciences Inc. v. Bio-Engineered Supplements & Nutrition Inc. that a muscle magazine, Flex,  advertisement about a bodybuilding supplement rendered the underlying patent obvious and invalid. The ruling stated seven claims of the patent were invalid because the invention "was disclosed in a printed publication before the critical date."