On September 23, WilmerHale and its client Intel obtained a significant victory when the Federal Circuit affirmed decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in four inter partes reviews, invalidating a total of 31 claims of a power amplifier patent owned by Qualcomm. The Federal Circuit’s decision resolves one of the last remaining disputes arising out of Qualcomm’s assertion of various power-related patents dating back to 2017.

In a ten-page decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board’s decision invalidating claims of US Patent No. 9,608,675 as obvious in view of prior in view of technology developed by Xin Yu at Alcatel Lucent in the early 2010s. The Federal Circuit confirmed that the Yu invention applied to mobile phones and rejected Qualcomm’s various procedural arguments concerning the Board’s analysis. The Federal Circuit also awarded Intel its costs on appeal.

The victory is an illustration of WilmerHale’s capabilities in handling high-stakes patent matters at all stages. With this win, WilmerHale has successfully defeated claims related to the ’675 patent in four forums: the International Trade Commission, United States District Court, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (twice) and now the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The WilmerHale appeal team was Louis Tompros, Kathryn Zalewski, Gary Fox, Dave Cavanaugh, Tom Saunders and Todd Zubler.