Opinion ID: 4199980
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Murata’s Reexamination of the ’190 Patent

Text: In August 2009, one of the defendants in SynQor I, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., requested inter partes reexamination of SynQor’s ’190 patent. See Murata Mfg. 4 Our discussion of the objective evidence appeared in connection with analysis of U.S. Patent No. 7,269,034 (the ’034 patent). The ’034 patent is a grandparent of the ’290 patent and, like the ’021 patent, claims priority to the ’190 patent. While the claims of the ’034 patent cover a semi-regulated isolation stage, they still cover IBA’s general design of separating isolation and final regulation stages. ’034 patent col. 17 l. 21–col. 20 l. 17. Indeed, all of SynQor’s patents discussed in this opinion cover IBA, which was the focus of our objective evidence analysis in SynQor I. VICOR CORP. v. SYNQOR, INC. 11 Co. v. SynQor, Inc., Reexamination Control No. 95/001,207, 2013 WL 4427009, at  (P.T.A.B. Aug. 16, 2013) (Murata). The PTO granted the request and initiated reexamination. The examiner rejected certain claims, and SynQor appealed to the Board. SynQor presented the same objective evidence of secondary considerations discussed in SynQor I to the Board in support of its nonobviousness arguments. The Board found a nexus between SynQor’s evidence and the disputed claims and reversed all examiner rejections, holding that the challenged claims were patentable over the prior art combinations proposed by Murata.