Patent Law Practice Center

Challenge to Round Rock RFID Patent, Among the Reexamination Requests Filed Week of Jan. 16th

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

In September, an unidentified party requested reexamination of four RFID patents owned by Round Rock Research.  Last Tuesday, reexamination was requested of another Round Rock RFID patent, Reissue 41,562, again by an anonymous party (see ex parte Request No. (1)).

Traditionally, reexamination has been requested of a substantial number electronics and Internet patents, but it is much less common for pharmaceutical and medical delivery patents.  In recent weeks, though, that pattern seems to be changing, with more reexamination requests directed to pharmaceutical and medical delivery patents.  That trend continued last week when reexamination was requested for two patents owned by Monosolclaiming film to be used in drug delivery systems (see ex parteRequest Nos. (3) & (4)).  Monosol has sued BioDelivery in New Jersey for infringement of the patents. (more…)

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…)

Patent Post-Grant Options – The New AIA Regime

Post-grant review proceedings of the USPTO were pursued in record number in 2011. In response, the America Invents Act introduced new options for patent reexamination such as Post-Grant Review, Inter Partes Review (formerly inter partes patent reexamination) Derivation, a special post-grant review for “business method” patents and Supplemental Examination. Whether your job requires management of a patent portfolio or advising clients in disputes that involve or may lead to patent litigation, the changes brought forth by the AIA are incredibly relevant.

PLI is responding to these changes by providing a seminar focused on these new patent post-grant options. On February 3rd, the seminar entitled “Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings 2012 – The New Patent Litigation” will be held at the New York PLI Center and online via a live webcast! Gain valuable practice insights concerning the new America Invents Act (AIA) post-grant USPTO proceedings directly from experienced practitioners on the program’s stellar faculty including:

Brian Hanlon, Director of the Office of Patent Legal Administration;

Irem Yucel, Director of the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU);

BPAI’s Chief Administrative Patent Judge James Donald Smith;

U.S. Chief Judge Garrett E. Brown and District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee; and

ITC Administrative Law Judge Theodore R. Essex  (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…)

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…)