Google Wins Revival of Rejected Parental Search Filter Patent

The US Patent and Trademark Office wrongly rejected a Google LLC patent application for parental control content filters, the Federal Circuit ruled Monday, upending the agency’s decision to combine two pieces of prior art that it then used to reject Google’s designs.

A three-judge panel said in a precedential opinion that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s defense of its decision last year affirming the patent’s rejection was not grounded in facts.

“Squint as we may, we do not see the justifications invoked by the PTO on appeal reflected in the record below,” Chief Judge Kimberly Moore wrote for the ...