Featured Posts
- Facebook Loses Reexaminations of Pragmatus’ Patents
- How is Reexamination Treating Round Rock Research?
- Reexamination has not Saved Apple against MobileMedia Patents, So Far
- What is an “Involved Application” in IPR Practice?
- Apple Victorious over Affinity Labs of Texas’ Portable Audio Player Patent
- Think IP Strategy Offers 2011 News Almanac
- An Update on Oracle’s Infringement Case against Google
- PTO Requests Public Comment on Proposed Rules for AIA Post-Issuance Proceedings
- Microsoft-i4i, Oracle-Google & VirnetX-Apple-Cisco Updates
- Oracle Patent to Emerge from Reexamination
- VirnetX again Sues for Infringement, and again Faces Reexaminations
- How Strong are Google’s Requests for Reexamination of the Lodsys Patents?
- PTO Board Sides with NVIDIA on Two Rambus “Barth I” Patents
- Oracle ‘520 Moves toward Confirmation in Reexamination
- Google Gets Mixed Result against Oracle’s Seventh Patent
- Did Google Request Reexamination of Lodsys Patents?
- Two Updates
- Oracle v. Google Android® Update
- Rambus Wins Limited Exclusion Order at ITC against NVIDIA, despite Pending Reexaminations
- 最初が肝心：不備のない再審査請求書を作成するために
- That’s My Patent You’re Reexamining…
- “Why Wait for Oppositions?” by Scott Daniels, 47 IDEA 343 (Law Review of Franklin Pierce Law School)
- The Basics
Noteworthy Links
- "The Interplay between Reexaminations, Preliminary Injunctions and Stays of Litigation" - by Dennis Crouch at PATENTLYO.COM
Favorite Patent Blogs
- All Things Pros
- CAFC Alert
- FDA Law Blog
- IPWatchdog
- Patent Docs
- Patently-O
- PLI Patent Law Practice Center
- Think IP Strategy
- US Patent Post-Grant Opposition
Recent Requests
PTO Statistics
Google Requests Reexamination of Fifth Oracle Patent
| February 18, 2011
As an update to our post on Wednesday, we have learned that Google yesterday requested that the Patent Office conduct an inter partes reexamination of Oracle’s U.S. Patent No. 6,910,205. The ‘205 patent is one of seven patents that Oracle asserts are infringed by Google, Oracle America v. Google (Case No. 3:10-cv-3561-WHA). The Patent Office has three months in which to determine whether to grant reexamination, that is, to determine whether a substantial new question of patentability is raised by the requests. Google is likely to request inter partes reexamination of the remaining two Oracle patents, shortly. The four requests Google filed Tuesday were for ex parte reexamination of the Oracle patents.
Google Takes Oracle’s Android Case to the Patent Office
| February 16, 2011
Yesterday afternoon, Google requested ex parte reexamination of four Oracle America patents – U.S. Patent Nos. 5,966,702, 6,061,520, 6,125,447 & RE 38,104 – related to the “Java platform.”
Oracle America had sued Google in August in the Northern District of California for infringing these patents, as well as three other patents, plus a series of copyrights “in code, documentation, specifications, libraries, and other [components] of the Java platform” (Oracle’s Amended Complaint). According to Oracle America, the patents cover “a bundle of related programs, specifications, reference implementations, and developer tools and resources that allow a user to deploy applications written in Java programming language on servers, desktops, mobile devices, and other devices.” Oracle America asserts that Google infringes the patents and copyrights by distributing “Android (including without limitation the Dalvik VM and the Android software development kit) and promotes its use by manufacturers of products and applications.”
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Facebook Challenges to Three “Human Relationships” Patents, among Reexamination Requests Filed Week of February 7, 2011
| February 14, 2011
This being Valentine’s Day, we couldn’t help noticing the requests (see inter partes Request Nos. (1) to (3)) filed last week by Facebook against three patents owned by Mekiki Creates for computer systems for “registering human relationships.” Facebook and Mekiki are currently in a relationship in an infringement suit in the Northern District of California. Also look at inter partes Request No. (6) for a gem cutting apparatus patent.
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Acer & Microsoft Attacks on MedioStream Video Recording Patent among Reexamination Requests Filed Week of January 31, 2011
| February 8, 2011
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.”
The dispute we reported January 31, 2011, between Abbott Diabetes Care and DexCom, appears to have escalated last week (see ex parte Request Nos. (5) to (7)).
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DNA Patents Dominate Reexamination Requests Filed Week of January 24, 2011
| February 2, 2011
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)).
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RIM Attack on MobileMedia Image Data Compression Patent among Reexamination Requests Filed Week of January 17, 2011
| January 27, 2011
Late last year, MobileMedia Ideas filed law suits against RIM and Hyundai asserting infringement of its U.S. Patent No. 7,349,012 for an apparatus for compressing image data. RIM has now requested reexamination of the ‘012 patent (ex parte Request No. (18)), and may now file a motion to stay its case with MobileMedia.
Another reexamination request of obvious commercial significance was filed by Boston Scientific against Cordis regarding U.S. Patent No. 5,922,021 for intravascular stents. (ex parte Request No. (2)). The parties are currently in litigation regarding the ‘021 patent. Requests were also filed against patents owned by Ronald Katz (ex parte Request No. (1)) and David Breed (ex parte Request Nos. 13 & 14)).
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PTO Director Initiates Reexamination against Gift Tax Patent in Week of January 10, 2011
| January 19, 2011
In a very unusual step, the Director of the PTO has initiated a reexamination of U.S. Patent No. 6,567,790 claiming a method of estate planning (ex parte Request No. (17)). In its reexamination order, the PTO explained that Director initiates reexamination when it appears “that an examining procedure has not been followed which has resulted in the issuance of a claim in a patent that is prima facie unpatentable, and there is a compelling reason to order reexamination at the Director’s initiative.”
In this instance, the original examiner’s failure to consider a specific article “has created an extraordinary situation” requiring reexamination. According to the reexamination order, the article was not considered or discussed in the original prosecution, even though it disclosed the claimed feature noted by the original examiner as the reason for allowance. Whether such methods related to legal and tax matters should be eligible for patent protection has been hotly disputed.
Whirlpool requested reexamination of an LG refrigerator patent (inter partes Request No. (2)). The two companies have been in litigation regarding refrigerator patents in the past. A request was filed against a Nikon patent, but it is not yet clear who filed it (inter partes Request No. (3)).
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Attack on Famous Funai Digital TV Patent, Among Reexamination Requests Filed Week of January 3, 2011
| January 11, 2011
Funai’s U.S. Patent No. 5,329,369 for digital television picture compression has been the subject of three District Court cases and an ITC investigation. In October, the PTO Board of Appeals ruled in a reexamination proceeding that claims 1-18 were invalid over the prior art. Now, a third party has requested reexamination of the remaining ‘369 patent claims 19-29 for a video signal processor (see ex parte Request No. (8)).
Apple requested reexamination of MedioStream’s U.S. Patent No. 7,843,508 (see inter partes Request No. (4)), in response to MedioStream’s infringement action against Apple, Microsoft and others.
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Sony Attack on L-3 Communications Patents Among Reexamination Requests Filed Week Of December 27, 2010
| January 5, 2011
The most commercially significant reexamination requests last week may be Sony’s filings against two L-3 Communications patents, following that company’s suit against Sony for infringement (see ex parte Request Nos. (6) & (7)). But standing out among last week’s new requests, at least in the size department, was a 697-page block-buster proposing 25 substantial new questions of patentability, filed by CME Group against a Realtime Data patent claiming data compression systems (see inter partes Request No. (1)). Finally, information became available from the PTO about yet another reexamination request against a Fractus patent, this time filed by HTC.
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TiVo Attack on AT&T Network Tracking Patent among the Reexamination Requests Filed the Week of December 20
| December 29, 2010
Earlier this year, AT&T Intellectual Property sued TiVo for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,983,478 entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING NETWORK USE.” TiVo, which has enjoyed success in earlier reexaminations, has now requested reexamination of AT&T’s ‘478 patent (see Inter Partes Request No. (4)).
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