Facebook Punctures Patent Xerox Unit Says It and Twitter Copied

Facebook Inc. defeated one patent involved in a Xerox Corp. unit’s infringement suit against it, in an administrative tribunal decision issued Monday.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that a patent held by Palo Alto Research Center Inc. is invalid as its innovation would’ve been obvious to a skilled engineer based on prior art. The patent—US Patent No. 7,043,475—is one of the seven that PARC says Facebook infringed and one of six it says Twitter Inc. infringed in two lawsuits filed in late 2020.

PARC also sued Snap Inc., the company behind Snapchat, alleging infringement of three ...