Availability of Document on Government Website Insufficient for Institution, PTAB Litigation Blog
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In denying inter partes review in OBM, Inc. & Cholla Energy LLC v. Lancium LLC, the PTAB again made clear that “technical availability” of a reference is not enough to establish it is a printed publication. Here, the PTAB held that the petitioner failed to show that one of its prior art references, a copy of a standard rates schedule governing the sale of electricity in Virginia (the “APC-Tariff” reference”), qualified as a printed publication. The patent at issue, U.S. Patent No. 10,608,433 (“the ’433 patent”) relates to energy management technologies to prevent overload of electric grids.