Alarm.com Inc, v. Hirshfeld, No. 21-2102 (Fed. Cir. 2022)
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Alarm.com filed petitions seeking inter partes reviews (IPRs) under 35 U.S.C. 311–19 of claims of three Vivint patents. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued three final written decisions, which rejected Alarm.com’s challenges to certain claims. The Federal Circuit affirmed in 2018. In 2020, Alarm.com filed three requests for ex parte reexamination of those same claims under 35 U.S.C. 301–07. The Patent Office’s Director, without deciding whether the requests presented a “substantial new question of patentability,” vacated the ex parte reexamination proceedings based on section 315(e)(1), which, the Director concluded, estopped Alarm.com from pursuing the requests once the IPRs resulted in final written decisions.
The district court dismissed Alarm.com’s complaint, reasoning that review under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 706(2)(A), (C), of the Director’s decision, was precluded by the ex parte reexamination scheme viewed as a whole. The Federal Circuit reversed The only portion of the ex parte reexamination statutory scheme that expressly precludes judicial review is section 303(c), but the preclusion established by that text does not apply to Alarm.com’s challenge.
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