Qualcomm Patent Survives Apple Challenge With Appellate Reversal

A US Patent and Trademark Office tribunal erred in axing a Qualcomm Inc. smartphone chip patent based in part on an admission the company made in the patent itself about a previously known invention, the Federal Circuit ruled.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board misapplied an earlier ruling by the appeals court, Judge Jimmie V. Reyna wrote Wednesday in a precedential opinion issued by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, undoing—for the second time—a PTAB invalidation of Qualcomm’s US Patent No. 8,063,674 as obvious based on material Qualcomm disclosed as “prior art” in the patent itself.

Apple ...