A petition to institute an inter partes review (IPR)
can only be filed on the basis of prior art consisting of patents
and printed publications. But what makes a reference a
"printed publication"? On December 20, 2019, the
Precedential Opinion Panel of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
issued a decision in Hulu, LLC v. Sound View Innovations,
LLC, IPR2018-01039 (Paper 42), in which the Panel opined on what makes a textbook
a "printed publication."
The patent-at-dispute between the parties is U.S. Patent No.
5,806,062, filed October 17, 1995, whose subject matter is directed
to certain apparatus and methods related to computer databases.
Patent Owner Sound View Innovations has asserted the patent in
multiple infringement lawsuits against tech companies such as the
petitioner Hulu, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In May
2018, Hulu filed an IPR petition before the Board to review the
patent, in which it argued that the patent was obvious in view of