jpbrody, JGoren:
Ericsson's surrender of the other two patents and admissions of invalidity were made during reissue proceedings before the United States Patent Office in which Ericsson is applying for new claims which it argues avoid the invalidity problems of the surrendered claims. To date, Ericsson has not dismissed its claims against QUALCOMM under the surrendered patents in the Texas litigation.
This is what most likely happened. When the lawsuit started and Ericsson disclosed the 11 patents, most likely Qualcomm found prior art that read on the Patent's claims and filed, within the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a motion for Re-examination. Within the motion, Qualcomm (or whoever filed the motion) cited the prior art.
Next, during Re-exam, a Patent Examiner read the prior art and after a few 'actions' with Ericsson's Legal Patent Counsel, it appears that the scope of the claims was narrowed.
It still appears that the patents are still valid, however, those patents have a much narrower scope.
From the article, it appears that Ericsson admitted that the broad coverage of their patents was, indeed, unpatentable in view of the cited prior art.
Any information on which patents were under the Re-examination proceeding at the PTO?
dave |
