In their latest triumph at the PTAB, Maier & Maier PLLC has won a major victory for GREE, Inc. by securing a non-institution decision, overcoming 3 challenges to their social gaming patent asserted by Supercell Oy in PGR2018-0037.
The challenged patent (9,662,573) covers a method for controlling a server device, a server device, a computer-readable recording medium and a game system. Supercell challenged the patent on three grounds: §101, §112(a), and §112(b).
The PTAB denied institution of the challenge as to all of the claims. The PTAB explained their decision on the §101 challenge, stating “we are unpersuaded by Petitioner’s argument that providing these sequential incentives, as claimed, was conventional and known in the prior art.” The analysis goes on to emphasize that Supercell failed to provide evidence, such as expert testimony or contemporaneous prior art, and also failed to provide relevant case law or persuasive argument to support its contention. Meanwhile for the §112 challenges, Maier & Maier successfully demonstrated that the patent was “cast in clear—as opposed to ambiguous, vague, indefinite—terms” and that Supercell “offered no credible evidence to support its assertion”.
Since Maier & Maier showed that none of the asserted grounds for unpatentability demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success, as discussed above, the PTAB issued a decision denying institution, dealing Supercell a serious blow in their ongoing patent litigation.
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