SAP Product, Patent Application Timing Troubles Federal Circuit

A three-judge Federal Circuit panel questioned whether a technology company filed a patent application before HP Inc.‘s and SAP SE‘s allegedly infringing enterprise software existed.

The company, Big Baboon, is trying to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that its patent has priority and its infringement suit should be revived. A trial court invalidated the patent in 2019, finding SAP’s software was already on sale before the critical date of December 1996.

The critical date is a year prior to what can be claimed as the patent application’s official date. The timing is key ...