Patent Filings Roundup: Petitions on Key Dupe Patents Denied Under Fintiv; Taxidermy Patent Filings Stuffed

It was a slow week at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and a fast one in the district court, with 82 new patent complaints and 85 terminations, but just 18 patent filings at the PTAB. Those few filings were mostly a battery company challenging Maxell patents, a few bigger NPE cases, and Apple and Samsung filing against assertor Smart Mobile Technologies from the middle of last year. Askeladden had a petition denied on the merits, Microchip Technology had a petition denied on General Plastics, and The Hillman Group got four inter partes reviews (IPRs) denied under Fintiv, guaranteeing they will head to trial in the Eastern District of Texas; more below.

Fintiv Denial in Eastern District of Texas Keymaker Fight: In a key U.S. competitor-competitor suit, relative upstart Hy-Ko Products sued The Hillman Group. Both are in the business of making key duplication machines and tools. Hillman group cornered the market on devices found in big box stores; per the complaint, Hy-Ko began to undercut them with smaller computerized machines that could be placed in retail stores, kiosks, and essentially looked like vending machines. This, the complaint alleged, both copied and cut into Hillman’s dominance in the key dupe industry. Ky-Ko accused Hillman of pressure, customer meddling, lawsuits, eventually, this patent infringement of their portfolio covering aspects of their retail machines. In return, Hillman sued Hy-Ko for alleged antitrust violations. Trial is set in a few months, and so the Board denied Hillman’s petitions over Fintiv, disregarding the merits and ensuring the trial is a lock.

Vector Capital Hangs It Up with Qualcomm: As noted last week, the Vector Capital-funded semiconductor campaign Monterey Research, LLC appears to have reached the end of the road, with Qualcomm and STMicro settling out the remaining IPRs after a round of institutions.

Taxidermy Suits Stuffed: at least four erroneously filed suits before Judge Albright in Waco involving a Timp LLC were withdrawn until eventually a suit was filed against McKenzie Sports Products, LLC on taxidermy patents.  It does not appear that the eventual filing did, in fact, include a complaint; but it did include two patents, 11,250,730 and 11,250,730, each directed to a “Repositionable Taxidermy Mount Apparatus.”

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