Tencent Loses Administrative Challenge to ‘Mini App’ Patent

A Tencent Holdings Ltd. subsidiary lost its bid to have an administrative tribunal cancel a patent covering technology related to “mini apps,” which Tencent claimed to have invented.

Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. alleged the patent’s inventor, Yogesh Rathod, copied patent claims from a published patent application Tencent had filed. It asked the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to cancel Rathod’s US Patent No. 10,990,265 in what is known as a derivation proceeding.

Rathod has sent licensing demand letters to various web technology developers, according to Unified Patents, a defensive patent group that in June 2021 announced a $2,000 prize ...