GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY v. RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES
CORP.
Before Lourie, Reyna, and Hughes. Appeal from
the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Summary: A party has standing to appeal an adverse IPR
decision if it has concrete plans for future activity that creates
a substantial risk of future infringement.
GE filed an IPR alleging that certain claims of a Raytheon
patent are obvious. The Board issued a final written decision
finding the challenged claims were not obvious. GE appealed.
Raytheon moved to dismiss the appeal for lack of standing. That
motion centered on whether GE had alleged an injury in fact.
Raytheon noted it had never sued or threatened to sue GE for
infringing the challenged patent. GE submitted declarations stating
that it conceived a geared turbofan engine that it expects Raytheon
would accuse of infringing the challenged patent, that GE spent
$10–12 million in 2019 developing that design, that GE
prefers that design for a next-generation market
