IP Law Daily, WORTH NOTING—Other IP law developments, (Dec 19, 2025)

By WK Editorial Staff

A periodic roundup of other items of interest to the Intellectual Property community.

PATENT—Fed. Cir.: The Patent Trial and Appeal Board did not err in its claim construction supporting its finding that six claims of Viasat Inc’s U.S. Patent No. 8,615,700 (’700 patent)—relating to methods, systems, and devices for forward error correction in flash memory—as not unpatentable. Kioxia Corporation’s appeal challenging the PTAB’s finding of additional claims was moot because they were cancelled as unpatentable as a result of a separate inter partes review proceeding. The court found that there was no evidence, as Kioxia argued, that the patentee intended to depart from the plain and ordinary meaning of “decode,” which excludes buffering alone. Kioxia’s other arguments were forfeited as not properly raised in the IPR proceeding (Kioxia Corp. v. Viasat, Inc., No. 24-1384 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 19, 2025)).

PATENT—Fed. Cir.: RFCyber Corp. failed to show the Patent Trial and Appeal Board erred in finding that all 11 claims of its U.S. Patent No. 11,018,724 were unpatentable as obvious over prior art references asserted by inter partes review petitioner Apple Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has decided. The evidence did not support RFCyber’s contention that the Board erred by relying on a different “emulator device” than what was presented in Apple’s petition. The Board adopted the construction of “emulator device” that the parties agreed to during claim construction in a parallel district court proceeding. Expert testimony and Apple’s petition supported Apple’s identification that hardware containing software—i.e., processor 400 storing and executing operating system 314—as the “emulator device” of claim 1, consistent with the agreed-upon construction (RFCyber Corp. v. Squires, No. 24-1614 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 17, 2025)).

AI NEWS: Part of S.1071, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 signed by President Trump on December 18, 2025, codifies part of the President’s July 2025 AI Action Plan calling to “Grow our Senior Military Colleges into hubs of AI research, development, and talent building, teaching core AI skills and literacy to future generations. Foster AI-specific curriculum, including in AI use, development, and infrastructure management, in the Senior Military Colleges throughout majors.” The act enables the Department of War (DoW) to establish and lead a National Security and Defense AI Institute to advance defense innovation, workforce development, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness.

COPYRIGHT NEWS: Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) announced on December 18 that they introduced legislation to modernize copyright registration for visual artists. The Visual Artists Copyright Reform Act (VACRA) would (1) allow visual artists to submit a single application for registration of a group of up to 3,000 photographs; (2) adopt a deferred copyright registration option; (3) direct the Copyright Register to establish regulations that allow for "all-you-can-eat" annual registration subscriptions for pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; and (4) direct the Register to create a modern, secure, searchable registry of electronic copies of copyrighted photos and the copyright holders’ information.

USPTO PATENT NEWS: The USPTO has updated its process for handling requests for Director Review where a party files a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit before the time period for filing a request for Director Review expires. In such cases, the Office will stay consideration of a subsequently filed Director Review request until the Federal Circuit determines whether to order a limited remand to the Office. See Yangtze Memory Techs. Co. v. Micron Tech., Inc., No. 26-1110, slip op. at 2 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 9, 2025) (granting limited remand for Director to consider timely request for Director Review filed after notice of appeal); Luminex Int’l Co., Ltd. v. Signify Holdings B.V., No. 25-2093, slip op. at 2 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 20, 2025). More information is available on the USPTO’s Director Review webpage.

USPTO PATENT NEWS: the PTAB issued updates to the Trial Practice Guide to indicate that the Board will hold a pre-hearing conference 15 days prior to an AIA oral hearing in cases instituted under the process implemented on October 17, 2025. Parties in other cases may request a pre-hearing conference by emailing Trials@uspto.gov. During the pre-hearing conference, the Board panel will provide guidance as to the particular issues that the panel would like the parties to address at the hearing (e.g., claim construction issues, reason to combine prior art teachings, or objective indicia of nonobviousness). The conference also will provide the parties the opportunity to identify any issues the parties would like to address at the oral hearing. A sample Scheduling Order that includes this pre-hearing conference is also provided as part of the update. More information is available on the Resources and Guidance webpage.

USPTO PATENT NEWS: The USPTO’s "Request for Ex Parte Reexamination Transmittal Form" has been updated to provide greater clarity about the required fields of information. Registered practitioners who represent anonymous third-party requesters were incorrectly entering their own name and address on the old SB/57 form. The new SB/57 form corrects this issue by providing a new check box to designate when a request is being filed on behalf of an anonymous third-party requester. More information about ex parte reexamination can be found in the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure, chapter 2200, beginning at section 2209.

Attorneys: Michael Hawes (Baker Botts LLP) for Kioxia Corp. and Kioxia America, Inc. Meg E. Fasulo (Bartlit Beck LLP) for Viasat, Inc. Richard M. Cowell (Fabricant LLP) for RFCyber Corp. Omar Farooq Amin, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for John A. Squires.

Companies: Kioxia Corp.; Kioxia America, Inc.; Viasat, Inc.; RFCyber Corp.; Apple Inc.

News: Copyright Patent TechnologyInternet FedCirNews USPTO