Fitbit’s Partial Win on Pedometer Patent Affirmed by Fed. Cir.

Fitbit Inc.'s successful challenge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to part of a patent covering improvements to a pedometer was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Thursday.

Fitbit challenged three parts of Blackbird Tech LLC’s U.S. Patent No. 6,434,212 after Blackbird sued it and other companies for infringement in Delaware federal court. The PTAB invalidated part of the patent but left two other challenged parts intact. Blackbird appealed the invalidation, but Fitbit didn’t challenge the validity decision.

Blackbird argued the board erred in finding a combination of earlier patents disclosed its patent’s “data ...