Recent developments at the USPTO suggest a significant shift in favor of the PTAB exercising discretionary denial and uncertainty on behalf of parties to PTAB proceedings. ...more
4/4/2025
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Inventions ,
Judicial Authority ,
Parallel Proceedings ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
USPTO
Director Vidal recently vacated the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to deny institution of three petitions for inter partes review (IPR), citing insufficient explanation for denial under 35 U.S.C. §325(d). ...more
The PTAB recently declined to exercise its discretion to deny IPR, instituting review in BMW of North America, LLC v. NorthStar Systems LLC, IPR2023-01017, Paper 12 (Dec. 8, 2023). There, the PTAB held that (1) a Sotera...more
Absent exceptional circumstances, the Federal Circuit will generally not consider arguments that a party failed to present in the tribunal under review. In Netflix, Inc. v. DivX, LLC, the Federal Circuit held that IPR...more
Under 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2), a patent challenger in an inter partes review (IPR) that reaches a final written decision is estopped from arguing in a district court or the ITC that the challenged patent is invalid based on...more
The PTAB recently granted a joint request to expunge an exhibit and contemporaneously denied the Patent Owner’s request for authorization to file a Motion for Leave to Submit the same exhibit in Bausch & Lomb Inc. v....more
Samsung Electronics Co. (“Samsung”) recently faced the issue of determining whether U.S. Patent No. 11,163,823 (“the ‘823 patent”) is a pre- or post-AIA patent. Hedging its bets, Samsung concurrently filed two petitions—one...more
On November 16, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) vacated a reexamination proceeding because the patent challenger relied on unpatentability grounds that reasonably could have been raised in an...more
In the latest development of OpenSky Industries v. VLSI Technology, USPTO Director Kathi Vidal has ordered sua sponte Director review of a PTAB panel’s decision on remand to institute OpenSky’s IPR challenge to a patent owned...more
The USPTO released a study in June 2022 that analyzed the prevalence of Fintiv denials occurring between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021. The Study focused on data illustrating how often patent owners raised parallel...more
During the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) Boardside Chat on July 7, 2022, discussion focused on Director Katherine Vidal’s interim guidance on discretionary denials under the Board’s precedential Apple v. Fintiv...more
An ITC Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) recently issued an initial determination holding that PGR estoppel prevented GMG Products LLC (Respondent) from raising two prior-art products in the ITC....more
3/24/2022
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
America Invents Act ,
Estoppel ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Invalidity ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Post-Grant Review ,
Prior Art ,
Priority Patent Claims
Under the Board’s rules, a patent owner gets to have the last word in a PTAB proceeding by filing a sur-reply to the petitioner’s reply. Sur-replies may only respond to arguments raised in the reply, and the “sur-reply … may...more
11/15/2021
/ Admissible Evidence ,
Depositions ,
Evidence ,
Exhibit Issues ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Netflix ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Samsung ,
Trial Exhibits
On May 26, 2021, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington denied both defendant Valve Corporation’s (“Valve”) motion for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial, and plaintiff Ironburg...more
A trade secret is any information used in one's business that derives independent economic value from not being generally known. Unlike patents, trade secrets are protected indefinitely for as long as they remain a secret....more