On May 29, 2020, Unified filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) against U.S. Patent 8,714,445, owned and asserted by Qwikcash LLC, an NPE. The ’445 patent is directed to a cash transfer system. It is currently being asserted against Blackhawk Network, Inc.
View Qwikcash’s district court litigation. To read the petition and view the case record, see Unified's Portal. Unified is represented by Jason Mudd of Erise IP in this proceeding.
Webinar Materials - Recent PTAB Discretionary Denials Rulings - Changes to § 314 and § 325
SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Stroud - Chief IP Counsel, Unified Patents
Mark Taylor – Assistant GC, Microsoft
Joshua Stern – Partner, WilmerHale
Our speakers from Microsoft, WilmerHale, and Unified hosted a lively conversation focused on the recent changes to § 314 and § 325, and followed how certain cases, like General Plastics & NHK Spring, could bring about future APA challenges to the de facto rules. For background on this topic, read Unified's recent report on the subject: unifiedpatents.com/insights/2020/5/13/ptab-procedural-denial-and-the-rise-of-314
Thank you to the panelists for covering such a key concern facing the Board. It's an important issue and we're hoping our study can shed some light on the dramatic rise in discretionary denials.
To listen to the recorded webinar, click here: https://vimeo.com/423800698
The slide presentation that went along with the webinar can be seen below.
We look forward to having you join us at our next webinar, Proving Up Printed Publication Status in a Pandemic on June 25th at 12p EST. For more information, visit our website.
$1,000 Awarded for Slotznick Prior Art
Unified is pleased to announce the PATROLL crowdsourcing contest winners, Ekta Aswal and Rajesh Singh, who split the winning cash prize of $1,000 for prior art submissions for U.S. Patent 7,137,127. The '127 patent is generally related to user-generated embedded information transfer and was granted to Benjamin Slotznick, an NPE-individual.
To help the industry fight bad patents, we have published the winning prior art below.
We would also like to thank the dozens of other high-quality submissions that were made on this patent. The ongoing contests are open to anyone, and include tens of thousands of dollars in rewards available for helping the industry to challenge NPE patents of questionable validity by finding and submitting prior art in the contests. Visit PATROLL today to learn more about how to participate.
WINNING SUBMISSIONS
Accelerated Memory Tech Disclaims Patent, Mooting Challenge
On May 21, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruled it would not institute Unified Patents, LLC v. Accelerated Memory Tech, LLC, IPR2020-00191 given the claims were no longer valid. While technically a denial, it would be more fair to say the issue was moot, given Patent Owner's earlier disclaimer of all the claims. The patent, U.S. Patent 6,513,062, owned by Accelerated Memory Tech, LLC, an IPinvestments Group affiliate and well-known NPE, was also ruled invalid under 101 in January 2020, prior to the statutory disclaimer. All other cases involving this patent have been terminated.
Unified Patents was represented by in-house counsel, Ashraf Fawzy, and by Raghav Bajaj and David McCombs from Haynes and Boone, LLP. To read the decision and view the case record, see Unified's Portal.
Clean Energy Management patent held unpatentable on all challenged claims
On May 19, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents LLC v. Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC, holding as unpatentable all challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,035,479, owned by well-known NPE Dominion Harbor subsidiary, Clean Energy Management. The ‘479 patent, directed to a mesh network door lock, had been asserted against over 15 companies including Crestron, Cisco Systems, and Lowe's. All cases have been closed.
Unified was represented by in-house counsel, Roshan Mansinghani and Jordan Rossen, and by Larissa Bifano and Michael Van Handel from DLA Piper LLP in this proceeding. To read the decision and to view the entire IPR proceeding, visit our PTAB Portal.