August 2013

Spotlight Info

In Plantronics, Inc. v. Aliph, Inc., No. 12-1355 (Fed. Cir. July 31, 2013), the Federal Circuit reversed-in-part and vacated-in-part the district court’s grant-in-part of SJ of noninfringement and invalidity for obviousness, and remanded for further proceedings.  The patent-in-suit is directed to a concha-style headset for transmitting received sounds to the wearer’s ear.  In granting SJ of obviousness, the Court found that the district court erred, noting that it did not cite any expert testimony indicating there was a motivation to combine the prior art references, instead determining that common sense provided the motivation.  The Court concluded that although the obviousness analysis is somewhat flexible, the record lacked the necessary reasoning by the district court to support its determination that common sense would provide the motivation to combine.  See this month’s edition of Last Month at the Federal Circuit for a full summary of this decision.