Spotlight on Upcoming Oral Arguments – July 2016

Thursday July 7, 2016

 IPLearn-Focus v. Microsoft, No. 15-1863, Courtroom 402

In this appeal, the Federal Circuit will determine if the district court properly applied the two-part Alice test in finding that three of IPLearn’s patents were unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101.  IPLearn claims that its patents, directed at sensors and associated software that interpret and respond to human movements, “interconnect[] particular novel combinations of sensor hardware and sensing software capabilities to deliver new and improved human-computer interfaces,” and therefore overcome the Alice test.

Arendi S.A.R.L. v. Apple, No. 15-2073, Courtroom 402

Arendi appeals the PTAB’s finding in an inter partes review that several claims of its patent, which concerns information searching based on document analysis, to be unpatentable as obvious. Arendi argues that the Board erred by making a common sense presumption that searching using a telephone number would happen when performing the operation of “‘[a]dd to address book’ of the telephone number.” It argues that common sense may not be used to “fill a hole” in the evidence unless it was indisputably within common knowledge, and in this case, a reasonable factfinder informed of the ordinary skill in the art would not have found this to be within common knowledge.

Friday July 8, 2016

Power Integrations v. Fairchild Semiconductor, No. 15-1329, Courtroom 402

Fairchild appeals the district court’s finding that it infringed Power Integrations’ patents by intending for its resale customers to sell products containing infringing computer chips in the United States. Fairchild primarily claims that Power Integrations failed to present evidence that showed it actively induced infringement, and says instead that it took no “actions intended to induce resale” of infringing products. In addition, Power Integrations is cross-appealing a finding that it infringed one of Fairchild’s patents, as well as the denial of a new trial on the issue of whether Fairchild induced infringement.

*Matt Karas was a Summer Associate at Finnegan