In re: Software Rights Archive LLC Patent Litigation DC

The Federal Circuit has cancelled additional claims in two Software Rights Archive, LLC (SRA) search engine patents (5,832,494; 6,233,571) partially invalidated by the the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In a memorandum opinion and order issued on September 9, the court partially overruled three final decisions in inter partes reviews (IPRs) filed by Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter (IPR2013-00479, IPR2013-00480, IPR2013-00481).

The Federal Circuit has affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision that invalidated all challenged claims in a search engine patent (5,544,352) asserted by Software Rights Archive, LLC (SRA). In a short, per curiam order issued on May 17 without an accompanying opinion (2015-1648), the court upheld the PTAB’s February 2015 ruling in an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding jointly filed by Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter (IPR2013-00478), in which the Board held that claims 26, 28-30, 32, 34, and 39 of the ‘352 patent are obvious in light of three academic publications by Edward A. Fox, a computer science professor at Virginia Tech. (The PTAB declined to find the same claims invalid on the other two asserted grounds, anticipation and obviousness over three other scholarly articles.)