Canon Gets Patent Board to Knock Out Digital Camera Patent

Canon Inc. succeeded in getting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to toss out a rival’s camera patent in two separate proceedings.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board July 23 found all nine claims of HS Asset and Technology LLC’s U.S. Patent No. 9,264,614 invalid in two inter partes reviews, which are proceedings that consider patent validity in light of prior patents or publications known as prior art.

The decisions illustrate how parties will sometimes file more than one petition for an administrative review in hope of invalidating claims in the same patent. Canon put forth various pieces of prior ...