Faced with a patent threat, renewable energy and climate change companies may have a new defense option – a Covered Business Method (CBM) proceeding. Ushered in less than 2 years ago as part of comprehensive patent reform legislation called the America Invents Act, a CBM review provides a timely, lower-cost alternative to District Court litigation for defendants to test whether a patent remains patentable before paying royalties.
Mindful of needs in the financial services industry, Congress provided eligibility criteria to initiate CBM review. In this way, a company had to first show the patent met a financial prong – in that it claimed activities incidental or complementary to a financial activity. As a result many felt their respective industries were exempt from CBM proceedings.
This week, in a case brought by Opower Inc., judges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted CBM review of an energy management patent now owned by CleanTech Business Solutions, LLC. See, CBM2014-00155. In so doing the judges acknowledged that a patent where an energy resource was a “valuable resource” exchanged for currency or other item of value met the financial prong of the test for CBM eligibility...
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