The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found decisively in favor of Mintz, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. and client Straight Path IP Group, Inc. in a long-fought battle over three of the licensing firm’s patents. The court upheld a prior 2016 decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

The PTAB’s final decisions last year, following the consolidation of the twelve IPRs brought against Straight Path regarding the validity of three real-time video teleconferencing patents, rejected claims by the appellants including Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., LG Electronics, Inc., Toshiba Corp., Vizio Inc., Hulu, LLC, Cisco Systems, Inc., Avaya, Inc., and Verizon Services Corp.

“For years, Straight Path’s patents have been tied up by these IPRs. We are pleased with the court’s ruling affirming the PTAB’s earlier decision thus closing this chapter and allowing our client to move forward,” said James Wodarski, a Member of Mintz’s Intellectual Property section.

The decision clears the way for pending District Court litigation to go forward and eliminates the question of validity in those proceedings, a central component of the defense’s position in those cases.

The decision is the second time the Mintz team has won at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on behalf of Straight Path. In 2015, the Mintz team achieved a win at the Federal Circuit on behalf of Straight Path and the ’704 patent in the first decision by that court to completely reverse an adverse IPR decision.   

In addition to Mr. Wodarski, Straight Path’s legal team was led by Michael T. Renaud, the Division Head for Mintz’s Intellectual Property Practice, and William A. Meunier and Michael C. Newman, Members in Mintz’s IP Section.