Skullcandy dealt blow in wireless patent case
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed an earlier ruling by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that invalidated claims in a wireless headphone patent owned by Skullcandy.
Judges Alan Courie, Todd Hughes and Kara Stoll affirmed the ruling yesterday, March 2.
The case centres on US patent number 7,187,948, titled “Personal portable integrator for music player and mobile phone”, which is owned by Skullcandy.
The patent is described as a “personal portable integrator” that is used to integrate audio devices such as an MP3, CD, DVD or radio “with the services of an arbitrary two-way communication device such as a mobile phone”.
In April 2015, semiconductor company CSR asked for an inter partes re-examination of claims of the ‘948 patent at the PTAB.
However, the examiner did not adopt CSR’s proposed rejections and the board affirmed the examiner’s decision.
CSR appealed to the Federal Circuit. On appeal, the court vacated the PTAB’s decision because “the board failed to construe ‘threshold value’ in a manner that would permit meaningful appellate review”.
The Federal Circuit instructed the board to “construe ‘threshold value’” on remand.
On remand, the PTAB reversed the examiner’s decision and rejected several claims of the patent.
Skullcandy appealed against the board’s decision to the Federal Circuit, arguing that “the board erred in its construction of ‘threshold value’ and that, under the correct construction, the claims are not unpatentable”.
In the case, Skullcandy argued that the PTAB made three summary statements about what “threshold value” means.
However, the Federal Circuit disagreed with Skullcandy’s argument and said that the PTAB “ultimately provided one construction of the term”.
In its decision, the Federal Circuit ruled that “because the board did not err in its unpatentability findings or conclusions, we affirm”.
“We have considered Skullcandy’s remaining arguments, but find them to be unpersuasive. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the board’s decision,” the court said.
The ruling is available in full here.
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