Samsung scores patent win at Federal Circuit
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday, May 23, handed victory to electronics company Samsung in a patent dispute.
In a precedential decision, the Federal Circuit concluded that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board had been correct to find that most of the claims of US patent number 9,189,437 were obvious.
The patent, called “Analog data generating and processing device having a multi-use automatic processor”, is owned by Germany-based Papst Licensing, a company that provides patent licensing and litigation services.
After Papst sued several companies for infringement of various patents, including the ‘437 patent, many of the companies concerned filed petitions for inter partes reviews (IPRs).
Samsung requested IPR of the ‘437 patent, which covers an interface device for communication between a data device (on one side of the interface) and a host computer (on the other), in February 2017.
The electronics company said the patent was obvious based on a combination of US patent number 5,758,081 (Aytac), a publication setting out the standards for the small computer system interface-2 (SCSI), and “admitted prior art” (what the ‘437 patent specification describes as prior art).
In its final written decision, the Board determined that claims 1– 38 and 43–45 are unpatentable for obviousness based on a combination of the prior art.
On appeal, Papst presented three arguments, but one of these contentions fell at the first hurdle.
The German company had challenged the board’s finding that Aytac teaches an “automatic recognition process that uses only SCSI rather than requiring additional software”.
However, the court concluded that Papst’s argument didn’t appear until the appeal, and such a contention is “forfeited if not fairly presented to the board”.
Papst’s other arguments, which challenged the PTAB’s and the board’s finding of what Aytec teaches, were also dismissed by the court.
“We reject those arguments for two reasons: they are barred by issue preclusion, and they fail on their merits,” said Circuit Judge Richard Taranto, on behalf of the court.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s final written decision.
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