On July 10, 2019, the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Finnegan client United Technologies, upholding its jet engine patent and dismissing General Electric's appeal of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision in a precedential opinion. This case addresses Article III Standing, an issue that has come up in several cases recently at the Federal Circuit.
The case stemmed from a 2017 PTAB decision where GE challenged various United Technologies jet engine patents. The PTAB upheld the claims in which GE had not shown they were obvious and GE appealed, arguing that United Technologies' patent limits its ability to design and develop new jet engines. However, according to the Federal Circuit's standard for determining standing in appeals of PTAB proceedings, GE must prove that it will infringe the challenged patent in the future. GE argued that in addition to being limited in the development of future jet engines, they've had to spend more money in research and development trying to design around United Technologies' patent, but the Federal Circuit was not convinced. The court said, "Aside from a broad claim of research and development expenditures, GE has provided no evidence that these expenses were caused by the [patent]. Therefore, GE's broad claim of economic loss is insufficient to confer standing."
