PTAB Axes Bike Chainring Patent After Fox Factory’s Appeal Win

Fox Factory Inc. convinced the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that a rival’s bicycle chainring patent is invalid, after the Federal Circuit found flaws in the board’s approach to evaluating considerations like a long-felt need for the invention.

Reconsidering the evidence in light of the Federal Circuit’s decision, the PTAB said it was “entitled to little or no weight because patent owner has failed to establish a nexus between that evidence and the claimed invention.”

The PTAB upheld the validity of the patent’s claims in two 2018 decisions. The board said Fox’s argument that the claims were obvious was “easily ...