On May 6, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) invalidated four patent infringement claims against Finnegan client Harmonix, marking the first decision in multiple America Invents Act reviews of the patent. Princeton Digital Image Corp. owns a patent used to control a “computer-generated virtual environment in response to audio signals.” The company sued Harmonix, the creator of the video game “Rock Band”, claiming that the video game infringed the patent. Harmonix filed a petition asking the PTAB to review various claims of the patent. The board instituted review of four of the claims and found them all to be unpatentable.
In November, Harmonix filed another petition arguing that all 23 claims of Princeton Digital’s patent are unpatentable. Finnegan attorney Linda J. Thayer stated that while there is still more work to be done, “This is a good example of using the IPR process to avoid litigation costs and have the PTO decide the validity of the claims while taking some of the load off the courts and conserving the resources of defendants.”