Justia Gaming Law Opinion Summaries

IGT owns an expired U.S. Patent No. 7,168,089, which addresses secure communication in gaming environments. In 2003, Zynga's predecessor copied claims from IGT's application into its own, leading to an interference declared by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences in 2010. Zynga moved for judgment that IGT's claims were unpatentable for obviousness, but the Board dismissed this motion as moot, terminating the interference because Zynga's claims lacked written description support.In 2021, Zynga petitioned for an inter partes review (IPR) of certain claims of IGT's patent, alleging obviousness based on new prior-art references. IGT argued that interference estoppel barred Zynga's challenge. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted the IPR, rejecting the estoppel argument, and the Director of the PTO affirmed this decision. The PTAB ultimately found all challenged claims unpatentable for obviousness.The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed the case. The court held that the PTAB's decision not to apply interference estoppel was unreviewable under 35 U.S.C. § 314(d), as it was closely tied to the decision to institute the IPR. The court also found no "shenanigans" or legal errors in the PTAB's decision. On the merits, the court affirmed the PTAB's findings that the prior art taught the claimed elements, including the "software authorization agent" and the required messages for authorizing gaming software transfers. The court concluded that substantial evidence supported the PTAB's findings and affirmed the decision. View "IGT v. Zynga, Inc." on Justia Law