Court Opinion

ID: 4879507
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2021-08-27 15:04:03.197728+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:02:03.951424
License: Public Domain

Case: 20-1330   Document: 50     Page: 1   Filed: 08/27/2021

        NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                 ______________________

                      APPLE INC.,
                       Appellant

                            v.

        UNIVERSAL SECURE REGISTRY LLC,
                     Appellee
              ______________________

                       2020-1330
                 ______________________

     Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark
 Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR2018-
 00812.
                  ______________________

                Decided: August 27, 2021
                 ______________________

     BRITTANY BLUEITT AMADI, Wilmer Cutler Pickering
 Hale and Dorr LLP, Washington, DC, argued for appellant.
 Also represented by KEITH T. HOWELL; MONICA GREWAL,
 Boston, MA; MARK D. SELWYN, Palo Alto, CA.

     CHRISTOPHER MATHEWS, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart &
 Sullivan, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, argued for appellee. Also
 represented by TIGRAN GULEDJIAN.
                 ______________________
Case: 20-1330        Document: 50      Page: 2    Filed: 08/27/2021

 2                  APPLE INC.   v. UNIVERSAL SECURE REGISTRY LLC

     Before NEWMAN, PROST *, and TARANTO, Circuit Judges.
 PER CURIAM.
     The patent at issue in this appeal is U.S. Patent No.
 8,856,539, owned by Universal Secure Registry LLC (USR).
 Apple filed a petition for an inter partes review, challeng-
 ing several claims of the ’539 patent before the Patent Trial
 and Appeal Board, which instituted the requested review
 and eventually issued a final written decision that Apple
 had not shown the challenged claims to be unpatentable.
 In another case, we have affirmed a district court’s judg-
 ment that all claims of the ’539 patent are patent ineligible.
 Universal Secure Registry LLC v. Apple Inc., No. 20-2044
 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 26, 2021). Therefore, as the parties agreed
 at oral argument, this appeal involving the ’539 patent is
 now moot. Apple Inc. v. Voip-Pal.com, Inc., 976 F.3d 1316,
 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2020); Oral Arg. at 7:00–7:55, 25:00–26:40.
 We vacate the Board’s final written decision and remand
 for the Board to dismiss Apple’s petition. See Apple, 976
 F.3d at 1321 (citing United States v. Munsingwear, Inc.,
 340 U.S. 36, 39–41 (1950)).
       No costs.
                   VACATED AND REMANDED

      Circuit Judge Sharon Prost vacated the position of
       *

 Chief Judge on May 21, 2021.