Federal Circuit Reverses District Court’s Application Of Collateral Estoppel, PTAB Litigation Blog
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Kroy IP Holdings, LLC sued Groupon, Inc., alleging infringement of 13 claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,061,660 (“’660 patent’), which relates to incentive programs over computer networks. Those claims were invalidated via successful IPR petitions. After the deadline for filing IPR petitions had passed, Kroy amended its complaint and alleged infringement of another 14 claims that were “immaterially different [from the 13 invalidated claims] for [the] purposes of invalidity.” The district court dismissed the case and held that the prior IPRs collaterally estopped Kroy from alleging infringement of the 14 immaterially different claims. The Federal Circuit reversed and remanded because IPR proceedings apply a “preponderance of the evidence” legal standard for invalidity, which is lower than the “clear and convincing evidence” standard used by district courts.
