Patent Law Practice Center

eBay Attack on Purple Leaf Electronic Transaction Patent Among the Reexamination Requests Filed Week of Jan. 23rd

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

Last week eBay replied to an infringement action filed against it in the Eastern District of Texas by Purple Leaf by seeking reexamination of the patent-in-suit (see inter partes Request No. (2)).  The Purple Leaf patent claims a process for conducting electronic transactions and making payments over the Internet.

The winner for the most reexamination requests filed wasNanosolar that challenged three Solannex patents related to photovoltaic cells (see ex parte Request Nos. (5), (6) & (7)).  The companies are in litigation over these patents in the Northern District of California.

Ex parte Request No. (4), involving U.S. Patent No. 5,337,753 owned by Biosig Instruments and claiming a heart rate monitor, is interesting in that it expressly calls for the PTO to “clarify the record” regarding the meaning of the claims.  The Request notes the ‘753 patent has been through an earlier reexamination, but that the trial judge in a pending infringement action has refused to rely on the patentee’s assertions in that earlier reexamination because they are “ambiguous.”  (more…)

Don’t Miss the Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings Seminar Next Week!

On Monday, February 3rd, PLI is hosting a seminar in New York City focused on the role of post-grant USPTO proceedings as components of a litigation strategy, including pre-trial and post-trial options. The seminar is entitled Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings 2012 – The New Patent Litigation, and it will focus on strategic considerations and common procedural traps for the unwary. The relative advantages and disadvantages of the various proceedings are explained from both the perspective of the Patentee and Third Party. Perspectives of the judiciary will also be presented, including case studies of well-known disputes, as judges from the U.S. District Court, the ITC, and the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) are all members of the faculty.

Registration is still open for the seminar. Registration includes a course handbook and associated course materials. A downloadable course handbook will also be available several days prior to the program start for your review. Won’t be in the New York City area next Monday? This upcoming seminar is also available via live webcast! The seminar, co-chaired by Oblon Spivak’s Scott McKeown and Birch Stewart’s Gerald Murphy, is one that should not be missed. The Patent Law Practice Center will keep you posted on the seminar throughout the day as we will be live blogging as well as tweeting  from the seminar (hashtag: #PLIpostgrant).

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…)

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…)