Acting Director Releases First Decisions Under New Bifurcated Process
By Daniel C. Sloan and Matt Johnson - On May 16, 2025, USPTO Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart released the first four discretionary denial decisions under the PTAB’s new process. Under the new process, the parties separately brief discretionary denial issues and...
Institution Denied for Insufficient Publication Evidence
By David Linden, Ernie Olesky, and Dave Maiorana - On October 29, 2024, BabyBjörn AB (“BabyBjörn”) filed two separate petitions for inter partes review (“IPR”) of U.S. Patent No. 11,786,055 (“the ’055 Patent”), which is assigned to The ERGO Baby Carrier, Inc. (“ERGO...
Director Review: PTAB Instructed to Allow Narrowly Tailored Discovery Regarding Time Bar
By Daniel Sloan and Matt Johnson - USPTO Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart recently vacated and remanded three Final Written Decisions from the PTAB. Semiconductor Components Indus. v. Greenthread, LLC, IPR2023-01242, IPR2023-01243, IPR2023-01244, Paper 94...
Estoppel Trumps Substance: ITC Bars Respondent’s Invalidity Grounds Raised in IPR
By Evan Tassis and Matt Johnson - Recently, an ITC Administrative Law Judge applied IPR statutory estoppel under 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2) in denying a Respondent’s motion for summary determination of invalidity in Certain Audio Players and Components Thereof,...
Trial Date Drives PTAB’s Denial of IPR Institution
By Mike Lavine - On April 16, 2025, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) denied institution of inter partes review (IPR) for several claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,187,307, owned by Universal Connectivity Technologies, Inc. HP Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Dell Inc.,...