In its Order, the Board denied Patent Owner’s request to redact the oral hearing transcript. Patent Owner desired to antedate certain prior art by proving an earlier conception plus due diligence up to a subsequent constructive reduction to practice. The issue in question was discussed during an oral hearing which was open to the public.
During the course of the hearing, a number of statements were made with regard to certain exhibits, including the dates identified on the exhibits. Patent Owner subsequently sought to redact certain of the dates discussed during the hearing.
The Board elected to deny Patent Owner’s request to redact the publicly available record, noting the strong public policy of maintaining the public availability of all information filed in an inter partes review. The default procedure is that all information identified during an oral hearing that is open to the public should remain in the public domain.
Microsoft Corporation v. Surfcast, Inc., IPR2013-00292, IPR2013-00293, IPR2013-00294, and IPR2013-00295
Paper 92: Order on Conduct of the Proceeding
Dated: August 27, 2014
Patent 6,724,403
Before: Michael P. Tierney, Joni Y. Chang, and Matthew R. Clements
Written by: Teirney