Samsung Electronics Co. has won at least a temporary reprieve from a patent infringement trial over digital rights management software, but Apple Inc. will be returning to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap’s East Texas courtroom in September for a new trial against the same patent holder.
That’s the quirky outcome of a decision Thursday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that sets some outer boundaries on stays of district court litigation when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board institutes covered business-method review. The decision also sets in motion a potentially awkward “race to judgment” between Apple’s proceedings in district court and at the PTAB, according to a dissenting judge.
