Narrow Stipulation Results in Fintiv Denial
By David Linden and Dave Maiorana - On March 31, 2023, Zhuhai CosMX Battery Co., Ltd. (“Zhuhai”) filed a petition for inter partes review (“IPR”) of claims of U.S. Patent No. 11,329,352 (“the ’352 Patent”), assigned to Ningde Amperex Technology Ltd. (“Amperex”). The...
RULEMAKING: PTO Aims for Transparency, Judicial Independence at PTAB
By Christian Roberts and Matthew Johnson - On October 6, 2023, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPR”) making changes to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) internal circulation and review of...
PTAB Not Required to Decode Petitioner Arguments
By Dave Maiorana and Megan McKnelly - In a precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit affirmed two Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) patentability decisions, holding that the PTAB did not abuse its discretion by not addressing arguments not clearly presented in...
Failure to Make Full Sotera-Stipulation Contributes to Denial
By Evan Tassis and Matt Johnson - In an increasingly rare exercise of discretion, the PTAB denied institution of inter partes review under Fintiv in Zhuhai Cosmx Battery Co., Ltd. v. Ningde Amperex Technology Limited, IPR2023-00587. The PTAB reasoned that the late...
Expectation of Success Analysis Need Not Be Separate
By Jack Graves and Matt Johnson - In Elekta Limited v. Zap Surgical Systems, Inc., the Federal Circuit recently affirmed a PTAB decision finding certain claims of a patent owned by Elekta Limited (“Elekta”) to be unpatentable, even though the PTAB decision had not...