Case: Patents/Obviousness (Fed. Cir.)

The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that some challenged claims of Metrom Rail LLC’s patents that relate to collision avoidance systems in the railroad industry are unpatentable as obvious over prior art, in an inter partes review by Siemens Mobility Inc., Hitachi Rail GTS USA Inc., Humatics Corp., and Piper Networks Inc. The court affirmed the board’s decision that some patent claims are unpatentable, and reversed the board’s determination that other claims aren’t unpatentable.