Federal Circuit Affirms Mobile Voice Command Patent Cancellation

The Federal Circuit upheld a tribunal ruling axing a patent for mobile device voice commands that was challenged by Unified Patents LLC, a membership group whose mission is challenging what it deems to be bad patents.

Voice Tech appealed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s December 2021 decision nixing US Patent No. 10,491,679, arguing the board erred in its interpretation of two terms from the patent—"audio command interface” and “mobile device interface.” It also argued the board succumbed to hindsight bias when it found that a skilled engineer would’ve had a motivation to combine teachings from an earlier patent ...