Patent Law Practice Center

Acer & Microsoft Attacks On Mediostream Video Recording Patent Among Reexamination Requests Filed Week Of January 31, 2011

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

On January 7, 2011, Apple requested reexamination of MedioStream’s U.S. Patent No. 7,843,508 covering a way of recording video data directly onto disks.  Now, both Acer and Microsoft have filed their own requests for reexamination of the ‘508 patent (inter partes Request Nos. (2) & (5)).  Each of these new requestors has been accused by MedioStream of infringing the ‘508 patent.  These requests continue a trend among the huge electronic companies, especially Apple, of using reexamination to reply to infringement allegations.

As an update to our posts of June 30 & November 9, 2010 and January 19, 2011 – regarding inter partes reexamination requests filed by Whirlpool against four LG refrigerator patents – Judge Garrett Brown, in a parallel infringement action between the parties in the District Court of New Jersey, has denied Whirlpool’s motion to stay the case pending completion of the reexamination proceedings.  Judge Brown explained that inter partes reexaminations “could take more than five years if the parties fully exhaust their appeal rights” and that delay could cause LG irreparable loss because the parties are direct competitors: “[t]he goodwill lost during the reexamination proceedings could be difficult to measure and difficult to compensate fully with money damages after trial.” (more…)