A Virginia federal judge confirmed that Finnegan client BMW was right to claim that former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal erred when she vacated a reexamination of a cruise control patent being challenged by BMW. The judge found that the former director didn’t adequately explain her analysis.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles granted in part and denied in part BMW’s motion for summary judgment citing that Vidal violated the Administrative Procedure Act when she vacated the USPTO’s reexamination of the patent, owned by Carrum Technologies LLC.
Finnegan partner Lionel Lavenue told Law360 that BMW is grateful to the judge "for her kind consideration of its arguments that then-PTO head Kathi Vidal acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, by rejecting BMW's challenge to a cruise-control patent, when the PTO had previously decided to reexamine the very same patent following prior and different challenges before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board at the PTO."
"The ruling by Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles is learned and well-reasoned, and BMW appreciates the consideration by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia," said Lionel.
Read “Judge Faults USPTO's 'Arbitrary' Ruling in BMW Patent Suit”
