Nidec Motor’s Patent Revived, Court Overturns Patent Board

Nidec Motor Corp.'s lawsuit against a Chinese competitor in a dispute over electromagnetic motors has been revived, after an appeals court reversed an administrative ruling invalidating one of Nidec’s patents.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Nidec’s patent was not anticipated by an earlier patent belonging to Toyota Motor Corp. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board had earlier applied the law incorrectly to wrongly invalidate the patent, the court said March 14 (Nidec Motor Corp. v. Zhongshan Broad Ocean Motor Co. Ltd., Fed. Cir., No. 2016-1900, 3/14/17).

Some critics have called the board a ...