Appeals Court Revives Intel’s Tribunal Challenge to VLSI Patent

The Federal Circuit gave Intel Corp. new life in its tribunal challenge to a VLSI Technology LLC chip-making patent.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board in 2020 upheld all of the claims Intel challenged in U.S. Patent No. 8,020,014, finding Intel failed to show the claims were obvious. The patent is part of an infringement suit in California brought by VLSI.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the PTAB wrongly refused to consider one of Intel’s invalidity arguments. It said the argument was in Intel’s petition, not “newly raised” late in the proceeding, as the ...