- The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found parts of a smart power meter patent owned by Smart Meter Technologies (“SMT”) to be unpatentable.
- A lawsuit over potential infringement of the patent by Duke Energy remains on hold pending an appeal of the Board’s decision.
In March 2016, Smart Meter Technologies, Inc. filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware alleging that Duke Energy infringed SMT’s U.S. Patent Number 7,058,524 by installing and operating automated power distribution equipment in residential installations. The lawsuit named the smart meters used by Duke as OpenWay® smart meters sold by Itron, Inc. Itron, which may have had an obligation to indemnify Duke, then petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to institute an inter partes review (“IPR”) of the ‘524 Patent, a procedure through which parties can request that the USPTO review an issued patent to challenge that the claims of the patent are not valid. Continue reading Patent Trial and Appeal Board Strikes Down Claims of Smart Meter Patent