Typical Supplier/Co-Defendant Is Not An RPI Or Privy, PTAB Litigation Blog
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In a recently published decision, the PTAB held that Samsung’s petition for inter partes review of a patent owned by The SEVEN Networks LLC was not time-barred under § 315(b). Samsung filed its petition less than one year after being served with a complaint for infringement of the patent being challenged. However, the patentee contended that Samsung’s supplier—who was also a co-defendant in district court litigation related to infringement of the same patent by the same accused products—was either a real party in interest or a privy of Samsung. And because the supplier was served with a complaint more than one year before Samsung filed its petition, the patentee argued that Samsung’s petition was time-barred.
