DALLAS, TX., February 17, 2025 - Winstead PC, a leading Texas-based law firm serving clients across the country, today announced that members of its patent litigation team, including shareholders Miranda Jones, David Higer, and Phillip Philbin, scored a significant double win for client Westport Fuel Systems, Inc. before the Patent and Trial Appeal Board (PTAB).
Petitioners Robert Bosch LLC and Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC filed two inter partes review (IPR) petitions, seeking review of Westport’s patents in December 2022. Last week, the PTAB gave Westport a decisive win on both patents, confirming all challenged claims to be patentable over Bosch and Mercedes’s selected prior art in two final written decisions.
“We persuaded a panel of three PTAB judges to reverse certain decisions they made when they instituted the IPRs, which is no small feat.” Ms. Jones explained. “In IPRs, the same panel of judges who decide whether to institute the trial proceedings also decide the merits of the challenge if proceedings are instituted. To have all challenged claims confirmed is a major win for Westport. We have a first-rate patent litigation team at Winstead. For the Westport IPRs, the team included David Higer, who is deeply knowledgeable about PTAB trials and authored a treatise on PTAB practice, and Phillip Philbin, who brings decades of trial experience in patent litigation,” said Ms. Jones.
Bosch also has filed a parallel declaratory judgment suit in the Eastern District of Virginia, which was transferred to the Eastern District of Texas and stayed pending the outcome of the IPRs. As to the district court proceedings, “We look forward to trial and Westport having its long-awaited day in court on its patents, which the PTAB has now confirmed after thorough IPR proceedings,” added Ms. Jones.
Westport’s patents are directed to innovative injection valve technology. The IPRs are IPR2023-00292 and IPR2023-00293.
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Winstead is a leading Texas-based law firm serving clients across the country. We work with public and private companies, governments, individuals, universities, and public institutions.
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