Victories for FOX Factory at Federal Circuit and the PTAB on bike chainring IPRs

Finnegan represented FOX Factory, Inc., a manufacturer of performance-defining products for bicycles and powered vehicles, in an appeal of adverse inter partes review (IPR) decisions from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) involving a patent directed to bike chainring technology. The PTAB had held that the patent owner was entitled to a presumption that any secondary considerations of non-obviousness (such as commercial success, praise, etc.) tied to the patented product were attributable to the patented invention. At the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Finnegan team argued that the PTAB’s decisions were contrary to Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court precedent. The Federal Circuit agreed with Finnegan that the PTAB had erred and that, under the prevailing case law, the patent owner was not entitled to any presumption that the patented invention was responsible for the alleged secondary considerations. On remand, the PTAB ruled in favor of client FOX Factory, finding all of SRAM’s claims unpatentable.