VIRNETX INC. v. APPLE, INC.

  • Dec 10 2018
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  • Category: CAFC Updates

VirnetX appeals from two final written decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that Apple had demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that certain claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,504,696 (relating to an agile network protocol for secure communications using secure domain names) were unpatentable as obvious. During the pendency of VirnetX’s appeal in this case, the CAFC summarily affirmed seven of the Board’s decisions finding that a particular piece of prior art (“RFC 2401”), was a printed publication and, in combination with other references, rendered obvious a number of patents related to the ’696 patent. Because VirnetX is collaterally estopped from re-litigating the threshold issue of whether prior art reference RFC 2401 was a printed publication and because VirnetX did not preserve the only remaining issue of whether inter partes review procedures apply retroactively to patents that were filed before Congress enacted the America Invents Act (“AIA”), the CAFC affirms.

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