Fed. Cir. Limits Review of Serial Patent Challenges (Correct)

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office abused its discretion by granting review of Vivint Inc.'s remote monitoring patent after rejecting three other challenges to the same patent by the same party, the Federal Circuit ruled.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejected a total of 14 inter partes review petitions filed by Alarm.com Inc. on four patents Vivint sued it for infringing. In the last rejection, the board faulted Alarm.com for engaging in “undesirable, incremental petitioning,” and using prior board decisions “as a roadmap to correct past deficiencies.”

The agency later ordered ex parte reexamination of one of the patents ...