PTAB to review two earphone patents after Apple petition
The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has agreed to review two wireless earbud patents after a petition from Apple as it looks to beat an infringement suit levied at it by headphone manufacturer Koss.
Koss’ two headphone patents will be subject to an inter partes review (IPR), giving Apple a chance to invalidate the patents it has been accused of infringing in district court proceedings.
The PTAB handed down two decisions on Thursday, June 3, granting review of Koss’ US patents 10,506,325B1 and 10,298,451B1.
Koss argued that the board should deny the petitions for review due to the proximity of the court’s trial date to the board projected review decision deadline.
The US District Court for the Western District of Texas had indicated that the trial date is expected to be April 18, 2022, which would be “one or two months prior” to the expected board decision deadline.
However, Apple argued that there would be a likelihood of the trial date being rescheduled due to outlying factors such as docket congestion and the global pandemic.
The board concluded that the argument brought by Koss was “minimally in favour of exercising our discretion to deny the petition”, but decided to grant the reviews.
The two orders grant an IPR of claims 1–4, 9, 10, and 14–18 of the ‘325 patent and claims 1–21 of the ‘451 patent respectively.
Review ramifications
A review of the ‘325 patent could impact other infringement proceedings brought by Koss, as it has also levied the ‘325 patent in an infringement case against JLAB Audio at the same court.
Koss launched several infringement suits against big-name earphone manufacturers, including Bose, Skullcandy and Plantronics of infringement, in separate complaints filed on the same day in July last year.
The suits against Plantronics and Skullcandy were closed in June and March respectively after motions to dismiss were granted.
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