Federal Circuit vacates IPR rulings in two appeals in favor of Finnegan client PPC Broadband

In two related appeals from inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, Finnegan successfully persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to vacate and remand the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decisions that adversely affected three patents related to coaxial cable connectors owned by client PPC Broadband. In the first appeal, for a majority of the claims, the Federal Circuit agreed with PPC that the PTAB overlooked a key claim limitation, and it therefore vacated and remanded the obviousness decision. For the remainder of the claims in that appeal, the court affirmed the claim construction ruling as the broadest reasonable interpretation, but noted that it would not be the “correct” construction had the Phillips standard applied. Finally, the court also agreed with PPC that the PTAB erred in disregarding much of the evidence on secondary considerations, including the commercial success of the accused products. In the second appeal, the court likewise agreed with PPC and vacated the PTAB’s claim construction as being unreasonable, stating that while the construction may have been the broadest interpretation, it was not the broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification. The Federal Circuit thus vacated and remanded the invalidity determinations in both appeals.