Federal Circuit Upholds PTAB’s Obviousness Finding and Joinder Decision in CyWee v. ZTE Smartphone Patent Case
Patent – Patently-O 2024-01-18
Summary:
The Federal Circuit recently affirmed a ruling by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in an inter partes review (IPR) filed by ZTE and joined by LG, finding claims of CyWee Group’s U.S. Patent No. 8,441,438 unpatentable as obvious. CyWee Group v. ZTE, No. 21-1855 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 18, 2024). The ’438 patent claims 3D motion-tracking technology for handheld devices like smartphones. The appeal included both IPR procedural issues and substantive patent law issues. In siding with the PTAB, the Federal Circuit rejected CyWee’s argument that the Board should not have allowed LG to oppose CyWee’s motion to amend its claims. The court also affirmed the Board’s finding that the proposed amended claims would have been obvious over the prior art.
An IPR petition cannot be filed by a party more than one year after that party has been sued for infringing the patent at issue. In this case, LG had previously been sued by CyWee for infringement and was time-barred from filing its own IPR petition. However, the law is more flexible with joinder, and LG was permitted to join the IPR already filed by ZTE. In its request to join, LG stated that it would “act as a passive understudy and [would] not assume an active role unless [ZTE] ceases to participate in the instituted IPR.” However, LG expanded its role during the IPR even though ZTE continued to also participate.