The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a Patent...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) appeals board decision Tuesday against Belkin International, Cisco Linksys, D-Link Systems and Netgear on the scope of a wireless router patent. Belkin had requested…
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an inter partes reexamination of U.S. Patent 7,035,281, claiming 10 “substantial new questions of patentability regarding claims 1-32 of the ‘281 patent” based on four prior references, according to the court ruling (http://xrl.us/bnsb78). OptimumPath has claimed Belkin, Cisco, D-Link, Netgear and other companies infringed on the 281 patent (http://xrl.us/bnscat). PTO Director David Kappos said only one of the references, U.S. Patent 6,560,217, raised a “substantial new question of patentability” and ordered a reexamination of six claims -- 1-3 and 8-10 -- under the 281 patent. Belkin petitioned for a review of the remaining claims not being reexamined, but did not ask for reconsideration on whether the other three claimed references applied, the ruling said. An examiner issued an “action closing prosecution” on the claims related to those accepted and did not deal with the three rejected references, so Belkin appealed to the PTO appeals board. The board found it did not have jurisdiction to decide applicability of the three rejected references and reaffirmed the examiner’s ruling, according to the federal court ruling. The federal appeals court said Belkin’s arguments in its appeal “are without merit,” saying Belkin should have petitioned Kappos to review his decision on the three rejected references. “Belkin did not do so, and thus that decision became final and non-appealable,” the court said in its ruling.