Patent Law Practice Center

HTC Attack on FlashPoint Image Capture Patent Among the Reexamination Requests Filed Week of Jan 9th

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

HTC has requested reexamination of FlashPoint Technology’s U.S. Patent No. 6,278,447 for video interface system (see ex parte Request No. (9)).  The ‘447 patent has survived two earlier ex parte reexaminations without cancelation or amendment of claims.

Reexamination was requested of another MobileMedia Ideas patent for data storage, U.S. Patent No. 5,977,887 (see ex parteRequest No. (2)).  The PTO records do not indicate the identity of the requester, but it might be HTC. (more…)

Attacks on Two MobileMedia Ideas Patents for Communication Devices, Among the Reexamination Requests Filed Week of Jan. 2nd

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

Reexamination was requested of two communications device patents owned by MobileMedia Ideas (see ex parte Request Nos. (2) & (3)).  MobileMedia, that describes itself as “patent portfolio licensor of inventions adopted by manufacturers of smart phones, mobile phones and other portable devices including personal computers, laptops, netbooks, personal media players, e-book readers, cameras and hand-held game consoles,” obtained one of the patents from Sony and the other from Nokia.  MobileMedia has sued HTC in the Eastern District of Texas for infringement of the two patents, plus nine other patents.  What stake if any Sony or Nokia has in the litigation is unknown.  It is not immediately clear who filed the requests, but it is likely HTC.

CBS Interactive requested reexamination of a paging system patent owned by Helferich Patent Licensing (see inter partesRequest No. (2)).  Helferich had sued CBS and a number of other media companies in Illinois and Arizona for infringement. CBS had requested reexamination of another Helferich patent at the end of December.  (more…)

Challenges to 5 Ronald Katz Telephone Patents, Among the Reexamination Requests Filed the Week of December 19, 2011

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

Perhaps more than any other inventor, Ronald Katz has been the target of rivals’ requests for reexamination.  This was certainly true this past week, when requests were filed against five Katz telephone system patents (see ex parte Request Nos. (1), (3) to (5) & (10)).  According to Patent Office assignment records, the five patents are owned by General Electric Capital.

Vicor requested reexamination of a SynQor power converter patent (see inter partes Request No. (5)).  Synqor has sued a number of companies, including Ericsson, for infringement of that patent.

And Ford has requested reexamination of a GM patent for a car body structure, specifically a roof panel-side frame construction (see inter partes Request No. (3)).

(more…)

CISCO Challenge to Two Virnetx Network Patents, Among the Reexamination Requests Filed the Week of Dec. 12, 2011

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

VirnetX, having long ago vanquished Microsoft, is now in a difficult infringement action in the Eastern District of Texas against Cisco and a number of other network-makers.  Last week Cisco requested reexamination of two VirnetX patents (see inter partesRequest Nos. (3) & (8) – U.S. Patent Nos. 7,418,504 and 7,921,211.

Knowles Electronics is involved in a rather complicated litigation position.  First, it sued Analog Devices in Illinois for infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,439,616 and 7,537,964, and then, at the beginning of this month, it filed an ITC Complaint against Analog Devices, Amkor and Avnet for infringement of the ‘964 patent, plus infringement of U.S. Patent No. 8,018,049.  Reexamination requests were filed last week against the ‘964 and ‘049 patent (see inter partes Request Nos. (1) & (2)), and reexamination was requested against the ‘616 patent last May.  This multi-front dispute creates another opportunity for interaction between the respective forums.

Reexamination is rarely requested for design patents, but two requests were filed last week (see ex parte Request Nos. (7) & (17)).  Challenges by reexamination to design patents seem to do much better than those in District Court.

Volkswagen requested reexamination of a GPS patent owned by Beacon Navigation who has sued a number of automakers for infringement of the patent (see inter partes Request No. (4)). (more…)

LG Attack on Whirlpool Refrigerator Patent, Among the Reexamination Requests Filed the Week of Dec. 5, 2011

Here is our latest weekly installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor…

LG has requested reexamination of Whirlpool patent for icemakers (see inter partes Request No. 3).  The Whirlpool patent is already the subject of a declaratory judgment action in Delaware, also filed by LG.  The two companies have been involved in a series of disputes over refrigerator patents.

Hitachi Koki has requested reexamination of seven Milwaukee Electronic Tool patents for lithium battery packs for hand-tools (see inter partes Request Nos. (8) to (10) and ex parte Request Nos. (5) to (8)).  Milwaukee has sued Hitachi in the Eastern District of Wisconsin for infringing the patents

Reexamination was also requested for two Ronald Katz patents for a telephonic lottery (see ex parte Request Nos. (3) & (4).  Katzpatents have been the subject of quite a number of reexaminations over the years. (more…)