Judge Profile

Jeffrey S. Smith

33 IP cases indexed. Covers patent matters.

Cases Presided Over

33 cases indexed | Page 1 of 2

patent instituted · Jun 4, 2025

Meta Platforms, Inc. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00742

Meta Platforms successfully petitioned to institute IPR against Mullen Industries LLC regarding augmented reality and location-based gaming claims. The Board found a reasonable likelihood of obviousness over Levesque and Ronzani, setting the stage for trial.

patent terminated or settled · May 5, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Apex Beam Technologies LLC

· IPR2025-00903

Apple and Apex Beam Technologies settled sixteen inter partes review proceedings covering patent 11,546,110. The Board granted joint motions to terminate the IPRs and ordered the settlement agreements to be kept confidential.

patent instituted · May 4, 2025

Meta Platforms, Inc. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00746

Meta Platforms, Inc. successfully convinced the PTAB that its claims against Mullen Industries LLC were non-obvious based on prior art (Levine). The Board instituted trial on all challenged claims related to location-based gaming and virtual reality features.

patent terminated or settled · Apr 29, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Apex Beam Technologies LLC

· IPR2025-00907

Apple and Apex Beam Technologies settled their dispute, leading to the termination of 16 inter partes review proceedings covering multiple patents, including U.S. Patent 11,139,944. The Board granted the joint motion to terminate, citing good cause and public policy favoring settlement.

patent terminated or settled · Apr 28, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Apex Beam Technologies LLC

· IPR2025-00901

Apple and Apex Beam Technologies jointly moved to terminate sixteen IPRs after reaching a settlement. The Board granted the motion, treating the settlement agreements as confidential. No claim merits were decided.

patent instituted · Apr 28, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Apex Beam Technologies LLC

· IPR2025-00901

The PTAB granted institution of IPR for Apple against Apex Beam Technologies over a wireless communication patent. The Board found a reasonable likelihood that the combination of Lee, Freda, and Ly renders claims 1-20 obvious.

patent terminated or settled · Apr 25, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Apex Beam Technologies LLC

· IPR2025-00910

Apple and Apex Beam Technologies jointly moved to terminate sixteen inter partes review proceedings after reaching a settlement. The PTAB granted the motion, treating the settlement agreements as confidential.

patent instituted · Apr 24, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Allani, Ferid

· IPR2025-00857

The PTAB granted institution of IPR for Apple against Ferid Allani's patent, focusing on web navigation claims. The Board found reasonable likelihood of unpatentability in several dependent claims but rejected it for the independent claims.

patent denied · Apr 24, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Allani, Ferid

· IPR2025-00856

The PTAB denied Apple's IPR against Ferid Allani's patent, finding that the petitioner failed to demonstrate a reasonable likelihood of prevailing on any challenged claim.

patent instituted · Apr 4, 2025

Meta Platforms, Inc. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00743

Meta Platforms successfully secured institution at the PTAB regarding its challenge to Mullen Industries' patent covering head-mounted displays and interactive systems. The Board found a reasonable likelihood of prevailing on multiple grounds, including obviousness (103) based on combinations of prior art.

patent instituted · Mar 27, 2025

Meta Platforms, Inc. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00744

Meta Platforms initiated an IPR against Mullen Industries LLC's patent covering Augmented Reality systems and Head-Mounted Displays. The PTAB issued an institution decision, finding a reasonable likelihood of prevailing on at least one challenged claim based on obviousness over Fager and Martins.

patent instituted · Mar 25, 2025

Meta Platforms, Ic. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00737

Meta Platforms, Inc. successfully navigated the institution phase of an IPR against Mullen Industries LLC's patent (8585476). The PTAB found a reasonable likelihood of prevailing on multiple claims based on obviousness over prior art combinations.

patent instituted · Mar 25, 2025

Meta Platforms, Inc. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00703

Meta Platforms successfully petitioned to challenge Mullen Industries' patent in an IPR proceeding concerning location-based gaming technology. The PTAB found a reasonable likelihood of prevailing on at least one challenged claim, leading to the institution of the review.

patent all challenged claims unpatentable · Mar 13, 2025

Databricks, Inc. v.ByteWeavr, LLC

· IPR2025-00716

Databricks successfully challenged U.S. Patent 8,275,827, leading the PTAB to find all 14 challenged claims unpatentable based on anticipation by the Carter reference and obviousness over Carter and Pitzel.

patent mixed - some claims cancelled, some upheld · Mar 13, 2025

Databricks, Inc. v.ByteWeavr, LLC

· IPR2025-00716

Databricks successfully challenged 15 claims of the ’827 patent, finding them obvious over the OceanStore system. Anticipation arguments failed, and the Board adopted broader claim constructions that still rendered the claims unpatentable.

patent terminated or settled · Feb 5, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Apex Beam Technologies LLC

· IPR2025-00904

Apple and Apex Beam Technologies entered a confidential settlement that led to the joint termination of sixteen inter partes review proceedings covering Apex Beam’s patents. The Board granted the joint motion, treating the settlement agreements as confidential.

patent terminated or settled · Jan 5, 2025

Apple Inc. v.Apex Beam Technologies LLC

· IPR2025-00898

Apple and Apex Beam Technologies entered a settlement that led to the joint termination of sixteen inter partes review proceedings, including IPR2025-00898 covering patent 10,951,271. The Board granted the motion to terminate under 35 U.S.C. § 317.

patent terminated or settled · Nov 11, 2024

Roku, Inc. v.VideoLabs, Inc.

· IPR2025-00071

Roku and VideoLabs settled their inter partes review dispute over U.S. Patent 7,440,559, leading the PTAB to terminate the proceeding before any claims were instituted.

patent instituted · Sep 30, 2024

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2024-01472

The PTAB granted Samsung's petition to institute an IPR against Mullen Industries' 11,190,633 patent covering smartwatch notifications. The Board found a reasonable likelihood of unpatentability for all 39 claims based on prior art combinations. Institution was ordered and the trial will commence.

patent instituted · Sep 30, 2024

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2024-01472

Samsung Electronics successfully petitioned to invalidate Mullen Industries' patent (11190633) covering wearable device notifications, leading the PTAB to institute IPR proceedings. The Board found a reasonable likelihood of obviousness across five grounds using combinations of prior art like Narayanaswami and Kita 514.

patent instituted · Sep 20, 2024

SAP America, Inc. et al. v.Cyandia, Inc.

· IPR2024-01433

The PTAB instituted the IPR, finding a reasonable likelihood of unpatentability for SAP America against Cyandia. The Board specifically found that key limitations regarding 'determining a notification method' lacked written description support in the original application.

patent final · Sep 20, 2024

SAP America, Inc. et al. v.Cyandia, Inc.

· IPR2024-01433

The PTAB found that the challenged claims were unpatentable over prior art combinations under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103. The Board adopted a broad claim construction, defining 'current state' to include both online and offline device states, which facilitated the finding of obviousness.

patent terminated or settled · Aug 11, 2024

Roku, Inc. v.VideoLabs, Inc.

· IPR2025-00072

Roku and VideoLabs settled their inter partes review dispute over U.S. Patent 7,233,790, leading the PTAB to terminate the proceeding before institution.

patent instituted · Jul 10, 2024

Google LLC et al. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00019

Google LLC et al. successfully convinced the PTAB to institute IPR proceedings against Mullen Industries LLC's patent on location services, despite initial concerns about discretionary denial. The Board found that Petitioner demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of prevailing based on strong arguments regarding prior art obviousness and key claim construction terms.

patent instituted · Jul 10, 2024

Google LLC et al. v.Mullen Industries LLC

· IPR2025-00018

Google LLC et al. successfully petitioned to institute IPR against Mullen Industries LLC's patent covering location services and tracking. The Board found sufficient evidence of non-obviousness, despite parallel district court litigation, leading to the institution of all 30 claims.

patent instituted · Jun 28, 2024

Apple Inc. v.Smith Interface Technologies, LLC

· IPR2024-01085

Apple Inc. successfully petitioned the PTAB to institute an IPR against Smith Interface Technologies, LLC regarding claims related to graphical user interfaces and touch screen manipulation. The Board found a reasonable likelihood of prevailing on multiple grounds of obviousness (103).

patent instituted · Jun 28, 2024

Apple Inc. v.Smith Interface Technologies, LLC

· IPR2024-01083

Apple Inc. successfully petitioned the PTAB to institute an IPR against Smith Interface Technologies regarding gesture-based touch interfaces. The Board found sufficient evidence that Apple's claims are obvious over combinations of prior art references Ahn, Chaudhri, and Hinckley. This decision sets the stage for a full trial on patent validity.

patent Final Written Decision · Jun 28, 2024

Apple Inc. v.Smith Interface Technologies, LLC

· IPR2024-01085

The PTAB issued a Final Written Decision finding the claims patentable over the cited prior art. The Petitioner (Apple Inc.) failed to demonstrate that combining Ramos Paper, Ramos Video, and Ording would teach a Person of Ordinary Skill in the Art how to implement the claimed translucent virtual display layer widget overlaying image content.

patent final · Jun 28, 2024

Apple Inc. v.Smith Interface Technologies, LLC

· IPR2024-01084

The Board found all challenged claims unpatentable based on obviousness over prior art references Shiplacoff and Nan. The decision concluded that the combination of gestures taught by these references would yield predictable results for a person of ordinary skill in the art.

patent instituted · Jun 27, 2024

Apple Inc. v.Smith Interface Technologies, LLC

· IPR2024-01087

Apple Inc. successfully petitioned to institute an Inter Partes Review against Smith Interface Technologies, LLC's patent 10656755. The Board found a reasonable likelihood of prevailing on grounds of obviousness (35 claims challenged).

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