Agency Head Tosses Motorola Patent Challenges, Cites ‘Fintiv’

US Patent and Trademark Office Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart terminated Motorola Solutions Inc.'s agency challenges to patents covering police body camera technology, leaning on a recently bolstered patent owner-friendly policy.

The agency’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board had agreed to review Motorola’s challenges to the patents. Stewart said the board’s Fintiv analysis—six factors the tribunal must weigh when deciding whether to take up a challenge to a patent’s validity when there’s parallel infringement litigation—was “erroneous,” in a decision issued March 28. She vacated the board’s decisions and denied Motorola’s challenges to four Stellar LLC patents.

The decision is the ...