Facebook Nixes Patents Behind Xerox Unit Infringement Campaign

Facebook Inc. dispatched a pair of patents at an administrative tribunal, giving it a leg up in a Xerox Corp. unit’s infringement suit against it.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled Thursday that all or parts of US Patent Nos. 8,606,781 and 9,137,190 were obvious and thus shouldn’t have been granted in light of prior art. The board found that all 36 of the ‘781 patents claims and eight claims from the ‘190 patent are invalid.

The owner of the patents, Xerox subsidiary Palo Alto Research Center LLC, sued Facebook along with Twitter Inc. and Snapchat owner Snap Inc. ...