On January 8, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a public version of its final written decision in Unified Patents Inc. v. Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, L.P., holding as unpatentable 15 of 21 challenged claims of U.S. Patent 8,014,284 owned by and asserted by Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, an NPE. The '284 patent, directed to an “add-on base station” in a cellular network, has been asserted in district court litigation against Verizon and Samsung.

The Board’s decision rejected Patent Owner's argument that Unified’s members should have been named as RPIs in this proceeding, finding that “[a]ll entities have an interest in eliminating or mitigating the risks of [] lawsuits pending against them.” This is the latest in a series of decisions that have consistently found Unified to be the sole RPI.

Unified was represented by Haynes and Boone in this matter. View Barkan Wireless' district court litigation here. To read the decision and view the entire case proceeding, see our PTAB Portal.