Supreme Court snub of Apple and Broadcom clarifies IPR estoppel tactics

28-06-2023

Sarah Speight

Supreme Court snub of Apple and Broadcom clarifies IPR estoppel tactics

Erik Cox Photography / Shutterstock.com

Apple and Broadcom will now face a jury trial on damages without a patent invalidity defence, finds Sarah Speight.

Apple and tech supplier Broadcom have failed to convince the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to reconsider a lower court’s decision that prevented them from raising patent invalidity challenges against the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

SCOTUS said on Monday (June 26) that it will not hear Apple and Broadcom’s petition for a writ of certiorari of a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which upheld a district court’s decision to apply estoppel under Section 315(e)(2) of the America Invents Act.

Following several inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, a California jury found in 2020 that Apple and Broadcom had infringed patents belonging to Caltech related to Wi-Fi encoders found in Apple products including iPhones, Macbooks and iPads, and granted summary judgment of no invalidity.


Apple, Broadcom, Caltech, patents, IPRs, estoppel, SCOTUS, US Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, PTAB, USPTO, California Institute of Technology

WIPR