In Ford Motor Co. v. Cruise Control Technologies LLC, IPR2014-0281, Paper 19, (July 2, 2014) the Board denied patent owner’s motion to join\u00a0five proceedings U.S. Patent No. 6,324,463.\u00a0 The Board ducked the question of whether proceedings could be joined before they were instituted, finding that in any event the\u00a0patent owner failed to justify joinder.<\/p>\n
As the moving party, the patent owner had\u00a0the burden of proof to establish that it is entitled to joinder of the five subject proceedings. 37 C.F.R. \u00a7 42.20(c) (2013), and the Board was not persuaded that joinder would reduce, in any material manner, the burden placed upon Patent Owner in defending the validity of the \u2019463 patent before the Board.\u00a0The Board noted that the Patent Owner will still have to defend against the same number of parties\u00a0and prepare briefs addressing the same grounds.\u00a0 The Board said that the patent owner “presents no credible evidence or argument in support of its statement that five separate proceedings “means five of everything at five times the cost” versus one joined proceeding which would involve the same substantive issues as the five separate proceedings. The alleged discovery burdens\u00a0imposed by five separate proceedings can be alleviated substantially by entering the same schedule in each case, in conjunction with cooperation between the parties and motion practice in the event of disputes \u2014 which is no different than what would happen in one joined proceeding.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Board\u00a0agreed with Petitioner that Patent Owner invited a multi-front battle concerning the validity of the \u2019463 patent when it filed\u00a0fifteen separate infringement lawsuits.<\/p>\n
Finally the Board was not persuaded that\u00a0 joinder in the present case, whether before or after institution of trials, materially would benefit the Board, noting that the same three-Judge panel has been assigned to each of the five subject proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Ford Motor Co. v. Cruise Control Technologies LLC, IPR2014-0281, Paper 19, (July 2, 2014) the Board denied patent owner’s motion to join\u00a0five proceedings U.S. Patent No. 6,324,463.\u00a0 The Board ducked the question of whether proceedings could be joined before … Continue reading