On February 4, the Federal Circuit issued a split decision affirming a patent invalidity decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in an inter partes review (IPR). This is the Federal Circuit’s first ruling on an appeal from a final determination in an IPR proceeding. In addition to upholding the PTAB’s determination that the patent claims were invalid as obvious in view of the prior art, the Federal Circuit also (i) affirmed that the PTAB’s use of the broadest reasonable interpretation standard for claim construction is proper in IPR proceedings, and (ii) held that it lacks jurisdiction to review the decision to institute an IPR, even after a final decision on validity.
Patent Invalidity Decision Background
“Cuozzo is the assignee of the ’074 patent, entitled “Speed Limit Indicator and Method for Displaying Speed and the Relevant Speed Limit,” which issued on August 17, 2004. The ’074 patent discloses an interface which displays a vehicle’s current speed as well as the speed limit. In one embodiment, a red filter is superimposed on a white speedometer so that “speeds above the legal speed limit are displayed in red . . . while the legal speeds are displayed in white . . . .” Id. col. 5 ll. 35–37. A global positioning system (“GPS”) unit tracks the vehicle’s location and identifies the speed limit at that location. “
To read more, click this link to the Federal Circuit split decision.
