PAPST LICENSING GMBH & CO. KG v. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS AMERICA
- May 23 2019 |
- Category: CAFC Updates
Samsung successfully petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to institute an inter partes review (IPR) of all claims of Papst Licensing’s U.S. Patent No. 9,189,437 relating to an interface device that achieves high data transfer rates between a data device and a host computer without the need for a user-installed driver specific to the interface device. The Board determined that certain claims are unpatentable as obviousness over a combination of prior art references. Papst appeals, challenging the Board’s construction of the “without requiring” claim limitations and the Board’s finding of the teachings of the prior art. However, the CAFC finds that the conditions for issue preclusion are met, and that issue preclusion therefore applies to the only two issues properly preserved for and presented on appeal. Accordingly, the Board’s decision is affirmed on that basis.