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

Challenged claims of Portsmouth Network Corp.'s patent that relates to methods and systems for efficient allocation of resources for data flow in communication networks aren’t unpatentable as obvious over prior art, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said, in an inter partes review by Cisco Systems Inc. The board determined that the challenged claims are obvious over various combinations of prior art, including prior art that describes methods and apparatus for using synchronous optical network technology to efficiently carry data and voice traffic, describes communication networks that include two or more rings, and that relates to the updating and use ...