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ARTICLE · 09 MARCH 2018

Split Panel Affirms PTAB Decision In Knowles Electronics LLC v. Cirrus Logic, Inc.

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Based on the Board's construction, the court agreed the challenged claims were anticipated.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
Kara Specht
Kara Specht
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In Knowles Electronics LLC v. Cirrus Logic, Inc., No. 2016-2010 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 1, 2018), the Federal Circuit affirmed a PTAB inter partes reexamination decision invalidating a patent as anticipated by the prior art and rejecting proposed claims for lack of written description.

The majority upheld the Board's claim construction of the preamble term "package," which the court agreed was limiting.  The court disagreed with Knowles' argument that the Board's construction was inconsistent with a prior Federal Circuit decision that upheld the ITC's construction of the same term in the same claims of the same patent.  Based on the Board's construction, the court agreed the challenged claims were anticipated.    

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