Patent lawsuit ruling against Assa Abloy and HID Global thrown out

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has thrown out decisions in favor of CPC Patent Technologies over Assa Abloy and HID Global because the rulings introduced new terminology. Patent lawsuits against Apple’s Secure Enclave will take place in Texas after the company’s request for location transfer was rejected.

Rulings against Assa Abloy, HID vacated

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has thrown out decisions that found that Assa Abloy and HID Global failed to show that two biometric patents from CPC Patent Technologies were unpatentable.

USPTO Director Kathi Vidal vacated decisions made by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in November and December stating that Assa Abloy couldn’t prove the claims challenged in the patents were unpatentable. She also noted that “further briefing is warranted regarding the board’s claim construction of ‘biometric signal’ in the final written decisions based upon the unique facts of this case,” as neither party proposed a definition for the term. Three different definitions of “biometric signal” were proposed in the case, once the PTAB introduced the term.

In its final written decisions, the PTAB defined “biometric signal” as “a physical or behavioral biometric attribute that provides secure access to a controlled item,” but Assa Abloy said the term refers to “the input and output of the biometric sensor.” CPC, the patent owner, argued that the term means “physical attribute of the user” such as fingerprint, face, iris or voice.

Because of this, Vidal vacated the final written decisions. The case now goes back to the PTAB.

The patents in dispute are numbers 9,665,705 and 9,269,208.

Assa Abloy has already defeated a CPC patent infringement suit over patent number 8,620,039, which was found to make claims too obvious to be patented.

Apple’s patent infringement case remains in Texas district

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) also just denied Apple’s petition for a writ of mandamus to transfer its case from a Texas district to one in Northern California, arguing the location would be more convenient, according to IP Watchdog. Carbyne Biometrics is suing Apple for infringing on six patents through Apple’s “Secure Enclave” and Apple Cash platform. Apple pursued a transfer in July of 2023.

The court decided against the transfer on February 12, 2024, finding that the case dealt primarily with hardware and server-side aspects of the products in question and five Apple employees with knowledge in those areas were based in Austin, Texas. This is in response to Apple’s argument that the case was limited to software features of the products in the case.

“Third-party employees named in the complaint and identified as potential witnesses also reside in Austin; and Apple failed to identify any specific third-party individuals in Northern California who were unwilling to testify,” wrote CAFC Chief Judge Kimberly A. Moore.

Article Topics

Apple  |  Assa Abloy  |  biometrics  |  Charter Pacific Corporation  |  HID  |  patents