Tag Archives: inter partes review

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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Sitting By Designation, Judge Albright Pens First Federal Circuit Opinion Vacating PTAB Decision for Failing to Consider Petitioner’s Reply Brief Claim Construction Arguments

June 24, 2024PatentApple, Axonics v. Medtronic, Claim Construction, Federal Circuit, inter partes review, IPR, Judge Alan D. Albright, obviousness, Omni MedSci, paid, patent law, PTAB, reply brief, sandbagging, wearable devicesDennis Crouch

by Dennis Crouch

The Federal Circuit's 2023 decision in Axonics, Inc. v. Medtronic, Inc. marked an important change in inter partes review procedure, ensuring petitioners have an opportunity to respond patentee's newly proposed arguments, with the hope of discouraging patent owners from holding-back ("sandbagging") at the institution stage. Case-in-point is the Federal Circuit's recent Apple v. Omni MedSci decision authored by Judge Alan D. Albright sitting by designation.