NONE, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sisvel has successfully defended institution of Inter Parties Review (Patent Board Case Number IPR2017-00565), on Sisvel’s United States patent relating to systems and methods of guiding vehicles on road networks. The Petition was filed by Unified Patents earlier this year. On Thursday, June 15, 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a decision denying institution on all challenged claims, holding that Unified Patents had failed to meet its burden to show that it would likely prevail on invalidity.
“We are very pleased with the Board’s decision,” said Sisvel SpA CEO Davide Ferri. “We found it curious that Unified Patents selected this patent, which has never been litigated. We suspect Unified Patents shares our view of the importance of this patent to ride sharing and other traffic guidance companies, and we believe this decision strengthens the patent and enhances its value, particularly in these fields.”
Unified Patents receives fees from members in industry groups, with the purpose of filing IPRs in those specific industries. “We will of course take into account which companies take licenses for patents willingly, versus those companies that force Sisvel to incur needless costs defending its valid patents, whether directly or through intermediaries,” Ferri said.
The Board decision indicated that Unified Patents had failed to demonstrate a sufficient rationale to combine asserted references to show obviousness of the challenged claims. “We were happy to see the Board apply the appropriate standards regarding combining references. We felt this was a failure in the Petition,” said Sisvel counsel Timothy Devlin.
Sisvel plans to evaluate the next steps in addressing ongoing infringement of the patent, as well as potential partners to further develop its traffic guiding patent technology.
About Sisvel
Sisvel is a world leader in managing intellectual property and maximizing the value of patent rights. Founded in 1982, the Sisvel Group is global in scope and reach, with companies in Italy (Sisvel SpA and Sisvel Technology in None Torinese), the United States (Sisvel US in Washington, DC and Los Angeles), China (Sisvel Hong Kong), Japan (Sisvel Japan in Tokyo), Germany (Sisvel Germany in Stuttgart), Luxembourg (Sisvel International), and the United Kingdom (Sisvel UK in London), with over one hundred professionals worldwide with technical, legal, and licensing expertise. Sisvel has a long history of managing successful patent portfolios including those related to the audio compression standards known as MP3 and MPEG Audio, and widespread technologies such as OSD (On Screen Display), ATSS (Automatic Tuning & Sorting System), and WSS (Wide Screen Signalling - for automatic switching of television image formats). Sisvel currently operates patent pools and joint licensing programs for the DVB-T2, LTE/LTE-A, 3G and Wi-Fi standards, together with its Sisvel Wireless and Recommendation Engine licensing programs. For additional information, please visit: www.sisvel.com
