Samsung Loses Appeal of Semiconductor Circuit Patent Challenge (1)

Samsung Electronics Co. and two other semiconductor companies have failed to kill 11 patents related to integrated semiconductor circuits they were accused of infringing.

Samsung, Micron Technology, Inc., and SK Hynix Inc. couldn’t prove the patents covered inventions that were obvious and unpatentable because it didn’t show a skilled person could have combined prior art—a research article and another patent—to create the same technology, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled June 12.

The case illustrates how the Federal Circuit weighs evidence to gauge whether an ordinary person skilled in the art would’ve had a reasonable expectation ...