Knobbe Martens, one of the leading intellectual property and technology law firms in the United States, achieved a victory at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. for its client Spectrum Brands, Inc., a global consumer products company based in Middleton, Wisconsin. This decision is Knobbe Martens’ eighth Federal Circuit victory in an appeal from a Patent Office proceeding since 2014.
Spectrum Brands developed the innovative and award-winning Kwikset® Kevo® Touch-to-Open™ smart lock allowing consumers to selectively provide access to their homes using their mobile phones. In 2015, Assa Abloy AB accused the Kevo® smart lock of infringing Assa Abloy’s U.S. patent rights and sought to exclude Kevo® from the marketplace.
A team of Knobbe Martens attorneys filed an IPR petition with the Patent Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board seeking cancellation of the asserted claims of the patent. The petition demonstrated that the patent was invalid because it claimed an invention that was already in the public domain. The IPR petition was successfully instituted and, after a full trial, the Board issued a final judgment in Spectrum Brands’ favor canceling 16 asserted patent claims. After the appeal was filed, Knobbe Martens also defended the judgment before the appeals court and obtained an order summarily affirming the Board’s decision.
The Knobbe Martens team included attorneys John Sganga, Joe Cianfrani, and Jeremy Anapol.
The case is Assa Abloy AB v. Spectrum Brands, Inc. et al., No. 2017-1817 (Fed. Cir.).
About Knobbe Martens:
Consistently ranked among the top intellectual property firms in the nation and worldwide, Knobbe Martens has over 275 lawyers and scientists nationwide and dedicates its practice to all aspects of intellectual property and technology law, including litigation. Knobbe Martens serves a diverse group of clients from multinational corporations to emerging businesses of all stages. The firm is headquartered in Orange County, California, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and enjoys an international reputation for excellence. More information about the firm can be found at www.knobbe.com.
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