Sleep Number Consultants Fail to Nix Court Block on Patent Bids

Two former Sleep Number Corp. consultants failed to convince the Eighth Circuit to lift a preliminary injunction preventing them from prosecuting or changing their patent applications involving biometrics monitoring.

Sleep Number has a good chance of proving former consultants Steve Young and Carl Hewitt filed patent applications for technology that actually belongs to Sleep Number because of their consulting agreements, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Wednesday.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota granted the preliminary injunction in April 2021, preventing Young and Hewitt from prosecuting or amending any claims in their applications. ...