Appeals Court Dings Tribunal in Gaming Controller Patent Appeal

The Federal Circuit wiped out a Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruling and sent it back for the second time, telling the panel it had ignored key parts of the earlier holding in favor of video game company Valve Corp.

The PTAB’s second ruling erroneously reconsidered the validity of a claim the appeals court had already deemed unpatentable, Judge Timothy B. Dyk wrote in an opinion issued Wednesday by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Dyk called the board’s approach “inconsistent with our mandate in Valve I and our case law on issue preclusion,” scrapping its decision. ...