In ATI Technologies v.
Iancu, 920 F.3d 1362 (Fed. Cir. 2019), the Federal Circuit
reversed the PTAB's decision that the Patent Owner had not
presented sufficient evidence to swear behind several prior art
references. In doing so, the Federal Circuit reminded the PTAB, as
well as practitioners alike, of the proper standard of proof for
demonstrating the diligent reduction to practice of an earlier
purported conception.
LG Electronics filed three IPR petitions against several ATI
patents directed to unified graphics processing systems that
process both vertex and pixel operations. LG asserted that the
claims in each patent were unpatentable over three prior art
patents. ATI opposed, arguing that it conceived its patented
inventions before the earliest effective filing dates of the prior
art patents. In support of its argument that these patents did not
qualify as prior art , ATI submitted evidence of its conception,
(constructive) reduction to practice, and diligence
