#ipr

#ipr

U.S. Patent No. 9,491,542 is titled "Automatic Sound Pass-Through Method and System for Earphones" and was challenged by Samsung via inter partes review (IPR) after ST1 sued Samsung for infringement. Samsung argued that claims 1-10 and 13- 20 of the patent were invalid due to obviousness based on three prior art references: Rosenberg, Ichimura and Visser. The PTAB ultimately found all of the challenged claims obvious over combinations of the prior art, but also found unchallenged claims 11 and 12 unpatentable without explanation.

The Board's Trial Practice Guide explains that 'one petition should be sufficient to challenge the claims of a patent in most situations' and 'multiple petitions by a petitioner are not necessary in the vast majority of cases.'