Apple Inc. v. Achates Reference Publishing, Inc.
In the final written decisions of two related inter partes
reviews (IPRs) concerning patents in the same family, the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board
(PTAB) sided with the petitioner, canceling all claims under
review. Apple Inc. v. Achates Reference Publishing,
Inc., Case Nos. IPR 13-00080 and IPR 13-00081 (PTAB, June 2,
2014) (Arbes, APJ).
The key ruling of the decisions concerns the one-year rule of 35
USC § 315(b). Achates argued that the IPR petition was
time barred because it had asserted the patent against an iPhone
application developer, QuickOffice Inc., more than a year prior to
the filing. Achates argued that QuickOffice was a privy of
Apple's because the companies had likely entered into a
software development agreement that required QuickOffice to
indemnify Apple for third party patent infringement claims.
