USPTO cancels all claims for Finnegan client CRS in second CBM proceeding (in favor of)

Finnegan client CRS Advanced Technologies achieved a complete win in the second decision related to covered business method (CBM) patents issued by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The Board cancelled every claim that had been pending in a related district court infringement litigation. In the CBM, Finnegan challenged the patent as not meeting the requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 101 and presented arguments in favor of claim cancellation, in what was the second such CBM hearing before the PTAB. The decision capped a decade of litigation for CRS. Frontline Technologies, Inc. initially sued CRS for patent infringement on one patent, which ultimately settled with CRS taking a patent license that Finnegan had negotiated with Frontline. Frontline later terminated the license and sued CRS a second time. The district court subsequently stayed the case pending a reexamination proceeding instituted by the USPTO on a petition filed by Finnegan on CRS's behalf, from which the patent emerged, heavily amended, two years later. Meanwhile, another Frontline patent issued and was asserted against CRS but, after a third party requested reexamination of that patent, Frontline granted CRS a covenant against suit and dropped that second patent from the litigation. The case continued for three more years on the reexamined patent, allowing Finnegan to file a CBM petition on the first day that procedure became available. The PTAB granted the petition, and a month later the district court again stayed the case, which was then in the final stages of pre-trial submissions. The Board agreed with CRS that the claims were unpatentable, and the related district court proceeding has since been dismissed with prejudice with the consent of the parties.