In Samsung Electronics Co. v. Elm 3DS
Innovations, LLC, Nos. 2017-2474 et al. (Fed. Cir. June
12, 2019), the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s decisions
finding eleven patents owned by Elm not unpatentable.
Elm asserted infringement of eleven patents relating to stacked
integrated circuit memory against Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix,
who then filed thirteen IPR petitions challenging Elm’s
patents at the PTAB. The PTAB found that the petitions did not
provide sufficient evidence to establish unpatentability because
they did not show that a person of ordinary skill in the art would
have had a reasonable expectation of success in combining the prior
art references. Samsung, Micron, and Hynix appealed.