Director Vidal Orders Sua Sponte Review (Again) in OpenSky v. VLSI
By Christian Roberts and Josh Nightingale - In the latest development of OpenSky Industries v. VLSI Technology, USPTO Director Kathi Vidal has ordered sua sponte Director review of a PTAB panel’s decision on remand to institute OpenSky’s IPR challenge to a patent...
PTAB Declines To Apply Assignor Estoppel
By Ashvi Patel* and Matt Johnson - Patent Owner, C.R. Laurence Co. Inc. (CRL), filed a patent infringement suit against Petitioner, Frameless Hardware Company LLC (FHC) for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 9,074,413 (the ‘413 patent) directed to framing members for...
OpenSky – Director Finds Abuse Of Process
By Anthony Bautista and Matt Johnson - In OpenSky Industries, LLC v. VLSI Technology LLC, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Katherine Vidal, issued a precedential decision regarding OpenSky’s violation of the Director’s express order and...
Petitioner Estopped On “Uninstituted” Claim
By Hannah Mehrle and Matt Johnson - Click-to-Call (Plaintiff/Patent Owner) filed an infringement suit against Ingenio (Defendant/Petitioner) and others. Defendant filed an IPR challenging the asserted claims. In the IPR petition, Petitioner asserted multiple grounds...
Director Reviews Institution Decision Involving Interference Estoppel
By Carl Kukkonen - In Zynga Inc. v. IGT, IPR2022-00199, the USPTO Director, Kathi Vidal, sua sponte granted review and affirmed the decision instituting trial over patent owner's argument that the Board erred in its application of interference estoppel with regard to...