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  • PTAB · Jun 2, 2025 · IPR2025-00233 · APJ Michael A Valek · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution under § 314(a) based on the Fintiv factors and denied joinder; it did not reach the merits of the asserted grounds.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Institution denied fintivInstitution denied

      “B. The Fintiv Factors and Related Guidance The Board’s precedential decision in Fintiv outlines factors that balance considerations of system efficiency, fairness, and patent quality when a patent owner raises an argument for discretionary denial due to the advanced state of a parallel proceeding, such as the MDL proceeding here. Fintiv 5–6. These factors are: 1. whether the court granted a stay or evidence exists that one may be granted if a proceeding is instituted; 2. proximity of the court’s trial date to the Board’s projected statutory deadline for a final written decision; 3. investment in the parallel proceeding by the court and the parties; 4. overlap between issues raised in the petition and in the parallel proceeding; 5. whether the petitioner and the defendant in the parallel proceeding are the same party; and 6. other circumstances that impact the Board’s exercise of discretion, including the merits. Id. “[I]n evaluating the factors, the Board takes a holistic view of whether efficiency and integrity of the system are best served by denying or instituting review.” Id. at 6.” slip op. at 10

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Institution threshold (reasonable likelihood / more likely than not)Institution denied

      “III. DISCRETION UNDER 35 U.S.C. § 314(A) We begin by addressing Patent Owner’s arguments for discretionary denial. As explained below, we find those arguments persuasive. Thus, we exercise discretion to deny institution of the Petition under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a) without reaching the merits of Petitioner’s asserted grounds of unpatentability.” slip op. at 8

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Joinder §315(c) / SAS all-or-nothingJoinder, deniedDenied

      “35 U.S.C. § 314(a) to deny institution of the Petition and deny the Joinder Motion.” slip op. at 2

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 11,084,865
  • PTAB · Jun 2, 2025 · IPR2025-00176 · APJ Michael A Valek · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution of IPR on all challenged claims under § 314(a), finding the Fintiv factors—particularly investment, overlap, and merits—weighed against review.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Denied

      “raised by this overlap, but given the circumstances, it does not effectively mitigate them. First, the disputed issues for Petitioner’s ODP defense are the same or substantially similar to those for the obviousness grounds in the Petition, but the Sotera stipulation does not prevent Petitioner from litigating those issues before both the district court (as part of its ODP defense) and here in the event an IPR is instituted.19 Second, the MDL proceeding 19 ODP or nonstatutory double patenting is, as the name implies, not premised on any statute. See, e.g., Ostuka Pharm. Co., Ltd. v. Sandoz, Inc., 678 F.3d 1280, 1297 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (“Nonstatutory double patenting is a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy.”). Accordingly, it is not a ground Petitioner reasonably could have raised in this IPR. See 35 U.S.C. § 311(b) (inter partes review may be requested “only on a ground that could be raised under section 102 or 103”). includes other biosimilar applicant defendants who are similarly motivated to try to invalidate the ’865 patent claims, but who are not subject to any Sotera stipulation. Even if we institute review on Petitioner’s grounds here, those other defendants remain free to litigate the same grounds in the consolidated MDL proceeding. For these reasons and given the particular circumstances of this case, Petitioner’s Sotera stipulation does not sufficiently mitigate the risks of duplicated efforts or inconsistent decisions by making this IPR a “true alternative” to resolution of these issues by the district court. See Motorola Solutions, Inc. v. Stellar, LLC, IPR2024-01205, Paper 19, 3–4 (PTAB Mar. 28, 2005) (determining on Director Review that a Sotera stipulation did not ensure IPR would be a “true alternative” because Petitioner’s invalidity arguments “include combinations of the prior art asserted in these proceedings with unpublished system prior art, which Petitioner’s stipulation is not likely to moot” and thus the same or similar issues would remain in the parallel proceeding); SAP America, Inc. v. Cyandia, Inc., IPR2024-01496, Paper 13, 8–9 (PTAB Apr. 7, 2025) (similar).” slip op. at 19

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 11,084,865
  • PTAB · May 15, 2025 · IPR2025-00033 · APJ Susan L C Mitchell · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution of IPR on claims 1–13 under § 314(a), finding the Fintiv factors favored denial and the petition did not present compelling merits.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Institution denied fintivDenied

      “We determine that this factor weighs heavily in favor of exercising discretion to deny the Petition. The trial date in the district court litigation is scheduled for October 6, 2025. See Prelim. Resp. 16 (citing Ex. 2010). This date is at least six months before our projected statutory deadline should we go forward in this case. Patent Owner points out that this trial date is nine months later than the median time to trial in the District of Delaware, and in Patent Owner’s view, the parties are on track to satisfy the current schedule. Id. at 16–17 (citing Ex. 2011).” slip op. at 9

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › §325(d) same art / argumentsNot reached

      “1 Patent Owner also asserts that the Petition should be denied under 35 U.S.C. § 325(d), but we need not reach this issue because we are exercising discretion under Section 314(a) to deny the Petition. See Prelim. Resp. 2–3.” slip op. at 2

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 11,744,802
  • PTAB · Apr 25, 2025 · IPR2025-00053 · APJ James A Tartal · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution of IPR challenging claims 1–10, exercising § 314(a) discretion because the Fintiv factors, considered holistically, favored denial.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Institution threshold (reasonable likelihood / more likely than not)Institution denied discretionary otherInstitution denied

      “review. 35 U.S.C. § 314(b) (2018); 37 C.F.R. § 42.4(a) (2023). An inter partes review may not be instituted “unless . . . the information presented in the petition . . . shows that there is a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner would prevail with respect to at least 1 of the claims challenged in the petition.” 35 U.S.C. § 314(a). However, institution of inter partes review is discretionary. Upon consideration of the Petition, the Preliminary Response, the Preliminary Reply, the Preliminary Sur-reply, and the evidence of record, we exercise our discretion to deny institution of inter partes review under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a) in view of the co-pending district court litigation.” slip op. at 2

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Denied

      “7. Balancing the Fintiv Factors As discussed above, factors 1 and 3–5 each favor denial. Factor 2 is the only factor that favors institution because there is no trial date in the Parallel Proceeding and the evidence presented of a median time-to-trial for civil trials in that district suggests a potential trial date after the statutory deadline for a final written decision in this proceeding. However, Patent Owner also shows that discovery and any dispositive motions will be completed in the Parallel Proceeding well before the statutory deadline for a final written decision in this proceeding, which presents a risk of duplicated efforts given the unmitigated overlap in issues between proceedings. On balance, considerations concerning an uncertain trial date in the Parallel Proceeding under Factor 2 do not outweigh the more substantial reasons identified under the other Fintiv Factors. Thus, considering all of the factors holistically, we find on balance that the factors on this unique record weigh in favor of discretionary denial of the Petition. Accordingly, we exercise discretion to deny institution under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a).” slip op. at 15

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 7,985,222
  • PTAB · Apr 21, 2025 · IPR2024-01477 · APJ Bach V Hoang · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution of IPR on claims 1–14 under § 314(a), finding that the Fintiv factors favoring denial outweighed the stipulation against denial.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Institution denied fintivInstitution denied

      “Statutory Deadline We weigh this factor as favoring the exercise of discretionary denial. The parties agree that the projected statutory deadline for issuing our Final Written Decision (April 23, 2026) is a little more than six months after trial is currently scheduled in the District Court litigation (October 6, 2025). Supp. Br. 4; Prelim. Resp. 19–20. Because the currently scheduled District Court trial is set to begin six months before our deadline to reach a final decision, this factor favors discretionary denial in this case. See Fintiv, Paper 11 at 9. C. Factor 3 – Investment in the Parallel Proceeding We weigh this factor as favoring the exercise of discretionary denial. Showing substantial investment in the District Court litigation, document production is substantially complete and fact discovery will be completed within two weeks of this Decision on Institution. Ex. 2001, 4–5 (Second Amended Docket Control Order). Further, a hearing on claim construction and associated briefing is complete. Id. And, the deadline to serve Institution. Id. at 4. These actions show that there has been notable investment by the parties in the District Court litigation. Furthermore, we must consider this parallel work in relation to the October 6, 2025 District Court litigation trial date, which is six months before the projected statutory deadline of our Final Written Decision. See Fintiv, Paper 11 at 10. As work in the District Court litigation has moved beyond preliminary stages into more advanced stages, instituting at this time implicates at least some duplicative costs. See id. On the matter of petition timing, it is often reasonable for a petitioner to wait to file its petition until it learns which claims are being asserted against it in the parallel proceeding. Fintiv, Paper 11 at 11. Here, Petitioner filed its petition on September 27, 2024, which is four months after receiving Patent Owner’s May 29, 2024 disclosure of asserted claims and infringement contentions and nine months after it was served Patent Owner’s December 29, 2023 infringement complaint. Ex. 1017; Ex. 1018, 1. Further, Petitioner served its amended invalidity contentions in the District Court litigation on December 17, 2024, i.e., after it filed its Petition.5 We do not find the timing of the Petition in this case to outweigh the significant investment in the District Court litigation. Considering the substantial investment in the District Court litigation and the rapidly advancing District Court litigation trial date balanced against the timing of the Petition, we determine this factor weighs in favor of discretionary denial.” slip op. at 11

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 8,898,803
  • PTAB · Aug 25, 2022 · PGR2022-00005 · APJ Ken B Barrett · PGR · Rehearing

    The Board denied NXP’s rehearing request, leaving in place the denial of PGR institution on claims 1–20 based on its holistic Fintiv analysis.

    RulingsRehearing decision
    • RehearingRehearing, deniedDenied

      “decision should be modified. 37 C.F.R. § 42.71(d). “The request must specifically identify all matters the party believes the Board misapprehended or overlooked, and the place where each matter was previously addressed in a motion, an opposition, or a reply.” Id. When rehearing a decision on a petition, we review the decision for an abuse of discretion. 37 C.F.R. § 42.71(c). “An abuse of discretion may be indicated if a decision is based on an erroneous interpretation of law, if a factual finding is not supported by substantial evidence, or if the decision represents an unreasonable judgment in weighing relevant factors.” Huawei Device Co., Ltd., v. Optis Cellular Tech., LLC, IPR2018-00816, Paper 19, 3 (PTAB Jan. 8, 2019) (precedential) (citations omitted). Further, “[a]bsent a showing of ‘good cause’ . . . , new evidence will not be admitted” in connection with a request for rehearing. Patent Trial and Appeal Board Consolidated Trial Practice Guide 90 (Nov. 2019), https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/tpgnov.pdf (citing Huawei Device Co., IPR2018-00816, Paper 19 at 4). Thus, a request for rehearing is not generally an opportunity to present new arguments or evidence.” slip op. at 3

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Other PTAB motions (exclude, strike, seal, additional discovery, rehearing)Denied

      “with the Request. “Ideally, a party seeking to admit new evidence with a rehearing request would request a conference call with the Board prior to filing such a request so that it could argue ‘good cause’ exists for admitting the new evidence. Alternatively, a party may argue ‘good cause’ exists in the rehearing request itself.” Huawei Device Co., IPR2018-00816, Paper 19 at 4; see also Consolidated Trial Practice Guide at 90 (quoting the same). Petitioner did not request a conference call prior to filing the Request to argue that good cause exists and does not present arguments in the Request regarding good cause. Accordingly, we find that Petitioner has not met its burden of showing that good cause exists to justify consideration of those exhibits to evaluate whether we erred by overlooking or misapprehending anything in the Decision. B. We Did Not Misapprehend the Significance of the Facts Pertaining to” slip op. at 4

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Decided for patent owner

      “argument, we stated that, “[b]ecause the currently scheduled trial in the parallel proceeding is scheduled to begin over two months before our deadline to reach a final decision, this factor weighs somewhat in favor of discretionary denial.” Dec. 9. After discussing all of the Fintiv factors and after “consider[ing] ‘a holistic view of whether efficiency and integrity of the system are best served by denying or instituting review,’” we exercised discretion to deny institution of a post-grant review. Id. at 12–13 (quoting Fintiv, Paper 11 at 6).” slip op. at 6

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 10,929,734
  • PTAB · May 19, 2022 · IPR2022-00239 · APJ John A Hudalla · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution for claims 1–20 under § 314(a), finding the advanced parallel litigation posture favored discretionary denial under Fintiv.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Institution denied fintivInstitution denied

      “acted upon Patent Owner’s request to modify the schedule. As such, we consider this factor with the trial being set for November 7, 2022. See Apple Inc. v. Fintiv, Inc., IPR2020-00019, Paper 15 at 13 (May 13, 2020) (informative) (“We generally take courts’ trial schedules at face value absent some strong evidence to the contrary.”). This is over six months before the expected date of our final written decision. Thus, we find that the second Fintiv factor favors exercising authority to deny institution.” slip op. at 8

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Institution threshold (reasonable likelihood / more likely than not)Institution denied

      “demonstrating that the challenged claims are invalid.” Pet. 79; see also Pet. Reply 3 (similar argument). Patent Owner argues that the Petition is deficient based on its arguments against the merits of the Petition. Prelim. Resp. 10. Based on the preliminary record, the merits of Petitioner’s asserted grounds seem to meet the “reasonable likelihood” standard for institution. Thus, we determine that the sixth Fintiv factor is neutral.” slip op. at 13

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 8,248,940
  • PTAB · May 19, 2022 · IPR2022-00238 · APJ John A Hudalla · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution for claims 1–17 under § 314(a), finding the advanced posture of the parallel litigation outweighed countervailing factors under Fintiv.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Institution threshold (reasonable likelihood / more likely than not)Institution denied fintivInstitution denied

      “review. See 35 U.S.C. § 314; 37 C.F.R. § 42.4(a). Under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a), we may not authorize an inter partes review unless the information in the petition and the preliminary response “shows that there is a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner would prevail with respect to at least 1 of the claims challenged in the petition.” For the reasons that follow, we exercise our discretion to deny institution of an inter partes review under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a).” slip op. at 2

    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Institution denied fintivInstitution denied

      “advanced . . . and instituting would lead to duplicative costs” with respect to invalidity/unpatentability. Fintiv, Paper 11 at 10. Accordingly, we find that the advanced state of expert discovery regarding invalidity favors exercising discretion to deny institution.” slip op. at 10

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 7,548,945
  • PTAB · May 2, 2022 · PGR2022-00005 · APJ Ken B Barrett · PGR · Institution

    The Board denied institution under Fintiv because the parallel district court case was advanced, scheduled for trial earlier, and substantially overlapped with the petition.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Institution denied fintivInstitution denied

      “decision in this proceeding, if institution were granted, would be May 2023, over two months after the currently scheduled trial date. “We generally take courts’ trial schedules at face value absent some strong evidence to the contrary.” Apple Inc. v. Fintiv, Inc., IPR2020-00019, Paper 15, 13 (PTAB May 13, 2020) (informative) (“Fintiv II”). “If the court’s trial date is earlier than the projected statutory deadline, the Board generally has weighed this fact in favor of exercising authority to deny institution.” Fintiv, Paper 11 at 9. Because the currently scheduled trial in the parallel proceeding is scheduled to begin over two months before our deadline to reach a final decision, this factor weighs somewhat in favor of discretionary denial. See Fintiv II, Paper 15 at 13.” slip op. at 9

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 10,929,734
  • PTAB · Apr 21, 2022 · IPR2021-01556 · APJ Kevin C Trock · IPR · Institution

    The Board denied institution under § 314(a), finding the Fintiv factors favoring denial collectively outweighed those against it.

    RulingsInstitution decision
    • PTAB / AIA Trials › Discretionary denial › Fintiv (parallel litigation)Institution denied fintivDenied

      “strong evidence to the contrary.” Apple Inc. v. Fintiv, Inc., IPR2020-00019, Paper 15, 13 (PTAB May 13, 2020) (informative) (“Fintiv II”). “If the court’s trial date is earlier than the projected statutory deadline, the Board generally has weighed this fact in favor of exercising authority to deny institution.” Fintiv, Paper 11 at 9. Because the currently scheduled trial in the parallel proceeding is scheduled to begin two months before our deadline to reach a final decision, this factor weighs somewhat in favor of discretionary denial. See Fintiv II, Paper 15 at 13.” slip op. at 8

    Discretionary denial
    Patents in suitUS 10,776,198
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