Tag Archives: Appellate Procedure

Federal Circuit Slices the Bologna Thin with IPR Rehearing Waiver Decision

August 1, 2024PatentAppellate Procedure, Claim Construction, Here's the comma-separated list of tags: Federal Circuit, inter partes review, IPR, motivation to combine, obviousness, paid, patent law, patent litigation, prior art, PTAB, Unified Patents, USPTO, waiverDennis Crouch

by Dennis Crouch

Voice Tech Corp. v. Unified Patents, LLC, No. 2022-2163 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 1, 2024)

Unified Patents is paid by its members to fight against non-practicing entity (NPE) patent assertions -- often by challenge patent validity via inter partes review. In this case, Unified challenged Voice Tech's U.S. Patent No. 10,491,679 which covers technology for controlling a computer via a mobile device using voice commands. At the conclusion of the IPR, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) sided with Unified - finding all challenged claims (1-8) of the '679 patent unpatentable as obvious over the combination of two prior art references, Wong and Beauregard. The PTAB also denied Voice Tech's request for rehearing. On appeal, the patentee won a minor battle on waiver, but ultimately lost on the merits.

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Jury Instructions and Objective Indicia of Nonobviousness: Federal Circuit Grants New Trial in Inline Plastics v. Lacerta

March 31, 2024PatentAppellate Procedure, Federal Circuit, Jury Instructions, obviousness, paid, patent law, Secondary ConsiderationsDennis Crouch

In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit vacated a judgment of invalidity and remanded for a new trial, holding that the district court's jury instruction on objective indicia of nonobviousness constituted prejudicial legal error. The case, Inline Plastics Corp. v. Lacerta Group, LLC, No. 2022-1954 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 27, 2024), involved patents relating to tamper-resistant and tamper-evident food containers.

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