BMW Convinces Judge to Remand Patent Chief’s ‘Arbitrary’ Denial

Finnegan client BMW convinced a Virginia federal judge that Kathi Vidal, the former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director, ignored evidence in shutting down their challenge to a cruise-control patent it was accused of infringing. 

BMW of North America LLC, a unit of the German luxury car maker, sued Vidal in 2023 after she cleared an administrative panel’s decision to examine Carrum Technologies LLC’s patent. Vidal concluded that BMW’s May 2021 request for a review of the patent’s alleged obviousness raised arguments similar to three previous challenges previously rejected by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said she couldn’t “discern how-considering the record presented to her-the Director could decide” an ex-parte reexamination “was inappropriate,” according to the order filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

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