Patent Law Practice Center

Whirlpool Challenge To Three LG Refrigerator Patents Among The Reexamination Requests Filed Week Of 2/28/11

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

Last year LG Electronics sued Whirlpool for selling refrigerators that infringe a series of LG patents.  Whirlpool has now replied by requesting reexamination of those patents (see inter partes Request Nos. (4), (5) & (6)).  Whirlpool has previously requested reexamination of at least four other LG refrigerator patents.  LG and Whirlpool have been in series patent infringement fights, including an ITC investigation.

There were also reexaminations requested by Google against two of the Oracle America patents in the JAVA infringement suit between the companies (see inter partes Request No. (3) and ex parte Request No. (9)).  A request was filed against another of the Intellectual Venturespatents from its case against Altera and other companies, probably by Xilinx, though the identity of the requester does appear in PAIR (see ex parte Request No. (22)).  Finally, a request was filed regarding one of the Ronald Katz telephone patents (see ex parte Request No. (3)). (more…)

DNA Patents Dominate Reexamination Requests Filed Week Of January 24, 2011

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

In August, Helicos Biosciences sued Pacific Biosciences of California, Life Technologies and Illumina in Delaware for infringing four patents claiming methods for nucleotide sequencing.  Pacific Biosciences has now replied by requesting reexamination of each of the four patents-in-suit (inter partes Request Nos. (2) to (5)).

Also, a request was filed for one of the Ronald Katz telephone patents (see ex parte Request No. (3)).

The following inter partes requests were filed:

(1)         95/001,528 (electronically filed) – U.S. Patent No. 7,69,133 entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEVELOPING RULES UTILIZING IN A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM and owned by Wellogix Technology Licensing.  Filed January 26, 2011. (more…)

Apple Files Nine Reexamination Requests

We’re posting the latest  installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor a few days early this week in light of the holiday weekend.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Apple has been especially active lately in defending against charges of patent infringement by filing requests for reexamination.  In response to two separate infringement suits in Texas, it filed requests against two Mirror Works patents and three Affinity Labs patents, and for an ITC investigation, it filed requests against four S3 Graphics patents (See Inter partes Request Nos. (1) to (3) & (5) to (6), and Ex parte Request Nos. (16) to (19)).

The following inter partes requests were filed:

(1)         95/001,487 (electronically filed) – U.S. Patent No. 7,751,327 entitled ATHLETIC MONITORING SYSTEM AND METHOD and owned by Affinity Labs. of Texas Filed November 15, 2010, by Apple.  The ‘327 patent is currently the subject of a litigation styled Affinity Labs. v. Nike et al. (E.D. Tex., Case 2:10-cv-54-DF-CE). (more…)

Samsung Attack On Two Mobile Phone Antenna Patents Owned By Fractus Among The Reexamination Requests Filed The Week Of November 8th

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

Last year Fractus S.A of Spain sued Samsung and a host of other mobile telephone makers in the Eastern District of Texas for infringing nine patents related to internal antennas for mobile telephones.  Samsung has now filed reexamination requests against two of those Fractus patents (Inter partes Request Nos. (1) & (2) below).  Requests for reexamination have now been filed against all nine Fractus patents-in-suit.

Also of special interest are reexamination requests filed by TiVo against two EchoStar patents for TV programming (Ex parte Request Nos. (3) & (5) below).

The following inter partes requests were filed: (more…)

Reexamination Requests by Whirlpool against Two LG Refrigerator Patents among those Filed the Week of November 1st

Here is the latest  installment of Reexamination Requests from our friends at Reexamination Alert….

The most commercially significant requests filed last week are likely the ones filed by Whirlpool against two LG refrigerator patents (Inter partes Nos. (4) & (5) below).  LG sued Whirlpool for infringement of those patents a little more than a year ago.  In early 2008, Whirlpool filed an ITC complaint against LG for several patents covering refrigerators (Inv. No. 337-TA-632), and in February of this year, the Commission issued its final determination finding no violation of Section 337.

Also of interest is a request filed by DexCom against an analyte sensor patent owned by TheraSense (Ex parte No. (9)).

The following inter partes requests were filed: (more…)