When Is A Published Patent Application Deemed Prior Art In IPR?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision in Lynk Labs, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.,¹ holding that a published patent application can qualify as prior art from its filing date. The Federal Circuit decision answered the previously unanswered question whether a published patent application should be considered prior art as of its filing date or, instead, its publication date in Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings.

Samsung filed a petition for IPR in November 2021 challenging the validity of some claims of a Lynk Labs patent. The key prior art reference Samsung relied on was a U.S. Patent Application Publication which was filed before but published after the challenged patent's priority date. Samsung argued that the Patent Application Publication, in combination with other references, rendered unpatentable the challenged claims of Lynk Labs' patent for obviousness.