Court Axes Part of Patent That Survived Prior Validity Challenge

The US Patent and Trademark Office rightly invalidated a gesture-detection patent over the owner’s objection, the Federal Circuit said, ruling Samsung’s involvement in a group that previously challenged the patent didn’t preclude it from asking the PTO for a re-examination.

An estoppel provision in the Patent Act doesn’t bar re-examination proceedings in cases where the requester previously contested the same patent in an inter partes review, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Monday. Unlike re-examinations, which can be requested by anyone but in which only the patent owner and the PTO participate, in IPRs, challengers and ...