Background
Alexandre Gonthier, Mario Delas, and Michael Kontorovich appealed from a decision of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board in proceeding No. 16/108,860.
The Federal Circuit’s judgment does not describe the claimed invention, the Board’s ruling, or the appellants’ arguments. The court heard argument from counsel for the appellants and the USPTO.
The Court’s Holding
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision.
The three-judge panel issued its judgment per curiam under Federal Circuit Rule 36, without a written opinion explaining its reasoning. The disposition is designated nonprecedential.
Key Takeaways
- The Federal Circuit left the PTAB’s decision in place.
- The court used Rule 36 to affirm without an explanatory opinion.
- The judgment is nonprecedential and provides no substantive analysis of the patent issues presented.
Why It Matters
The ruling ends this Federal Circuit appeal with the Board’s decision intact. Because the court supplied no reasoning and designated the disposition nonprecedential, the judgment offers no new doctrinal guidance for other patent applicants or PTAB appeals.