The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated in part
and remanded a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board) determination
of unpatentability because the Board did not adequately support its
reasoning as to certain claims. Alacritech, Inc. v. Intel
Corp., Case No. 19-1467 (Fed. Cir. July 31, 2020) (Stoll,
J.).
Intel petitioned for inter parties review (IPR) of a
patent owned by Alacritech that is directed to performing network
processes on a dedicated network card (INIC) instead of on a
computer's central processing unit (CPU). Intel asserted that
the claims would have been obvious over prior art Thia in view of
Tanenbaum. The Board agreed, finding claims of the patent were
obvious. Alacritech appealed.
