CBS triumphs over NPE in Fed Circuit patent appeal
A non-practising entity (NPE) did not follow proper procedure for challenging a decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a dispute with TV network CBS, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled.
In the decision, issued Friday, January 10 the Federal Circuit said Personal Audio could not challenge the PTAB’s invalidation of its patent via a challenge to a US district court ruling.
The judgment means CBS will not have to pay the $1.3 million awarded by a jury for infringing the patent.
The dispute stems from a 2013 lawsuit at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in which Personal Audio accused CBS Corporation, now merged into ViacomCBS, of infringing a patent related to organising audio files (US number 8,112,504).
Personal Audio’s latest appeal from the district court contained “various challenges” to the lawfulness of the PTAB’s final decision, including that it violated the seventh amendment of the US constitution.
The Federal Circuit ruled that it had no jurisdiction to hear these challenges, which could only be presented in an appeal to the PTAB’s decision itself.
“To the extent that Personal Audio challenges the [PTAB’s] final written decision, the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider the challenges, and we have no jurisdiction to review them on appeal from the district court’s judgment,” the Federal Circuit ruled.
Personal Audio also challenged the district court’s conclusion that the PTAB’s invalidation of its patent required the court to rule in favour of CBS.
The Federal Circuit, however, said Personal Audio had forfeited its right to raise this challenge when it signed a joint status report agreeing that “current authority supports rendering a judgment in favour of the defendant CBS”.
Multiple appeals
Personal Audio originally sued CBS in 2013, alleging infringement of a patent related to organising audio files.
A jury at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas initially ruled in favour of Personal Audio, finding that CBS had infringed the patent, and awarded $1.3 million in damages.
The PTAB, however, found in separate proceedings initiated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that three claims of the ‘504 patent were invalid and unpatentable.
The Eastern Texas district court agreed to stay entry of its judgment until an appeal of the PTAB decision to the Federal Circuit had been resolved.
CBS was successful during these initial proceedings at the Federal Circuit, which affirmed the PTAB’s invalidation of the ‘504 patent.
The district court then entered a judgment in favour of CBS, overturning the jury’s finding of infringement.
Personal Audio appealed that district court judgment, leading to Friday’s Federal Circuit ruling.
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