Institution Denied For Failure To Prevail On Indefiniteness And/or Obviousness

• Published date: 03 September 2021
• Law Firm: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
• Author: Ms Kelly Lu, Stacy Lewis and Thomas L. Irving

Holding

In Voltserver Inc. v. Cisco Technology, PGR2021-00055, Paper 11 (PTAB Aug. 19, 2021), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("the Board") denied institution of Voltserver's post-grant review (PGR) petition challenging claims in U.S. Pat. No. 10,735,105 ("the '105 patent). According to the Board, Voltserver failed to show the challenged claims were invalid as indefinite and obvious.

Background

The '105 patent relates to a communications network that transmits power from a central network device to powered network devices. Testing to identify faults in the system uses high voltage pulses and a low voltage mode. The claim terms the petition alleged to be indefinite were "high voltage" and "low voltage." According to the petition, without any objective boundary provided in the specification the public cannot know the boundaries of the claimed subject matter. In addition, the...