Category: PTAB
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Are Patent-Friendly PTAB Decisions On the Rise?
Patent litigation changed with passage of the America Invents Act. Overnight the PTAB became a new venue for challenging patent claims using IPRs, CBMs and PGRs. The initial reaction by the patent bar to the PTAB’s “take charge” approach to instituting review and canceling patent claims was met with approval by businesses under attack by…
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Patent Due Diligence and Evaluation After the AIA
Many factors must be considered for due diligence and valuation of a patent portfolio. The patent owner’s desire to have broad claims that capture a large number of infringements must be tempered against its need for claims that will not be deemed invalid in view of prior art. Before the America Invents Act (AIA), patents…
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4 Tips to Make Your Patent Portfolio AIA-Ready
The America Invents Act (AIA) has changed the way that patents are enforced. In traditional patent litigation, a patent was drafted to perform in district court. After the AIA, when patents are asserted, they are first challenged in administrative proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). These proceedings, called IPRs (inter partes reviews), PGRs…
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PTAB Relies on the Federal Circuit’s Recent § 101 Decision to Deny CBM Institution
On May 12, 2016, the Federal Circuit issued a decision on 101 patent eligibility that overturned a summary judgment finding of § 101 invalidity for software used for databases. Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., No. 2015-1244, 2016 WL 2756266 (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2016). The Enfish v. Microsoft decision interpreted the “abstract idea” first prong of…
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New PTAB Trial Practice Rules Effective May 2, 2016
On April 1, 2016 the PTO published its final rule on Amendments to the Rules of Practice for Trials Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. A small correction to these Amendments was published on April 27. I presented a summary of these rule changes at the AIPLA Spring Meeting in Minneapolis, MN on May 18, 2016. The…
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Patent Trends to Watch in 2016
2016 is starting off with a bang! A number of interesting new developments have occurred as we enter into this new year: The Supreme Court will review broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), courtesy of the petition for cert in Cuozzo The Federal Circuit continues to selectively review and provide guidance on PTAB decisions, such as in Ethicon Endo-Surgery…
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Board Limits Multiple IPR Challenges in Samsung Electronics v. Rembrandt Wireless Technologies
June 22, 2015 Rembrandt Wireless Technologies sued Samsung and Research in Motion for infringement of U.S. Patent 8,457,228 in June 2013. The ‘228 patent relates to data communications, and in particular to a data communication system in which a plurality of modems use different types of modulation in a network. In June of 2014, Samsung filed six IPR…
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Federal Circuit Interprets Board’s Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Standard – Part II
In Microsoft Corp. v. ProxyConn, Inc. v. Michelle K. Lee, Intervenor (Fed. Cir. cases 2014-1542 and -1543), the Federal Circuit reversed claim constructions made by the Board in the underlying IPRs. One of the claim constructions that was reversed related to the interpretation of components of a packet-switched network. In particular, the claims recite a…
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Federal Circuit Interprets Board’s Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Standard – Part I
We know from the Federal Circuit’s decision in In re Cuozzo Speed Technologies, that the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) standard applies in IPRs, but in a recent appeal decision, the Federal Circuit has announced limits to the application of BRI. Microsoft had filed two separate IPR petitions challenging certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,757,717, which were later…
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New PTAB Rule Changes Published Yesterday
A small number of rule changes were published yesterday which affect all involved in post-grant trials at the USPTO. The fixes make the rules more specific and make for more uniform proceedings. They are effective May 19, 2015. A copy of the Federal Register notice can be found here.