Opinion ID: 4569334
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Avaya IPR

Text: After Network-1 filed its complaint in the district court, another defendant, Avaya Inc. (“Avaya”), petitioned for IPR of the ’930 patent. The district court stayed its proceedings pending IPR. The Board partially instituted Avaya’s petition. See Avaya Inc. v. Network-1 Sec. Sols., Inc., No. IPR2013-00071, Paper 18, 2013 WL 8595554 (P.T.A.B. May 24, 2013) (“the Avaya IPR”). Specifically, the Board instituted review of claims 6 and 9 of the ’930 patent based on two grounds: (1) anticipation under Case: 18-2338 Document: 73 Page: 6 Filed: 09/24/2020 6 NETWORK-1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) by Matsuno 1; and (2) obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) by De Nicolo 2 and Matsuno. Id. at . Following institution, HP, together with other petitioners, filed an IPR petition and motion to join the Avaya IPR. HP’s petition included grounds different from those that had already been instituted. The Board denied HP’s request. HP, with others, thereafter filed a second IPR petition and motion to join the Avaya IPR, this time including only the grounds already instituted. The Board granted HP’s request, and HP was joined as a party to the Avaya IPR. At the time that HP filed its second IPR petition, more than one year had passed since the district court complaint had been served, and therefore, HP was time-barred under 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) from having its own petition instituted. But because § 315(b) creates an exception from the time bar for joinder under 35 U.S.C. § 315(c), HP was nonetheless able to join. In its final written decision, the Board held that neither claim 6 nor claim 9 was unpatentable over the instituted grounds. We affirmed. See Avaya Inc. v. Network-1 Techs., Inc., 612 F. App’x 613 (Fed. Cir. 2015).