Case: Patents/Obviousness (P.T.A.B.)

Some challenged claims of claims of Unification Technologies LLC’s patent that discloses techniques for managing data in a storage device using an empty data segment directive are unpatentable as obvious over prior art, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said, in an inter partes review by Micron Technology Inc., Micron Semiconductor Products Inc., Micron Technologies Texas LLC, Dell Inc., and HP Inc. According to the board, some claims are obvious over a prior patent that discloses a memory management device for managing a nonvolatile semiconductor memory and a journal article entitled “Mapping Structures for Flash Memories: Techniques and Open Problems.” ...