Failure to Provide Examiner With Copy of PTAB Decision Does Not Establish Inequitable Conduct​

The magistrate judge recommended granting plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment that their patents were not unenforceable for inequitable conduct or unclean hands because the failure to submit a copy of a disclosed PGR institution decision was not material. "Defendants’ position practically assumes there is some requirement to submit relevant PTAB decisions to the Examiner during prosecution. But Defendants do not cite any authority for this kind of requirement. Regardless, knowing that the Examiner was indeed aware of the decision, Defendants’ position assumes that Examiner is somehow incapable of finding the PTAB’s PGR Institution Decision on his own (otherwise the patentee’s duty of candor would have been discharged by informing the Examiner). . . . It would be difficult to understand how the USPTO could not obtain the necessary publicly available documents from its own administrative agency when needed."

Tinnus Enterprises, LLC et al v. Telebrands Corporation, 6-16-cv-00033 (TXED August 15, 2017, Order) (Love, MJ)