Patent Owner Withdraws Appeal

Sisson & Banyas, Attorneys at Law, LLC is pleased to announce that the Patent Owner in the Ex Parte Reexamination of United States Patent No. 7,943,216 (the “’216 Patent”) has withdrawn its appeal* of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) decision** affirming all of the Examiner’s rejections during Reexamination. As a result of the Patent Owner’s withdrawal, all of the claims remain rejected, and the Firm expects a Reexamination Certificate cancelling all of the rejected claims to issue in the coming weeks.

The two Ex Parte Reexamination requests filed by Sisson & Banyas, Attorneys at Law, LLC were accompanied by declaratory evidence containing detailed experiments calling into question the validity of an unexpected “synergy” which formed the basis for patentability in the original prosecution. According to the PTAB, the experiments were “compelling evidence” in establishing by a “preponderance of evidence”, that the Examiner was correct to disregard the data supporting the unexpected “synergy.”

Principal Attorney Ed Sisson commented on this latest development:

The Patent Owner’s withdrawal of the current appeal is the final blow to the validity of the ‘216 Patent as well as the earlier infringement decision. We are obviously happy with the withdrawal as it confirms the strength of the arguments presented to the United States Patent Office.

*United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Appeal No.: 2016-2346

**PTAB Appeal No.: 2016-001727