Houston’s Heim, Payne & Chorush Scores Another PTAB Victory Against BMW
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorneys from the Houston intellectual property litigation boutique Heim, Payne & Chorush LLP have won another key ruling against automobile manufacturing giant BMW of North America, LLC, on behalf of firm client Arigna Technology Limited of Ireland.
Firm partner Mike Heim and associate Chris Limbacher defeated BMW’s attempt to invalidate 32 separate claims filed against Arigna’s U.S. Patent No. 8,289,082. The patent covers a current amplifier with an adjusting circuit used to reduce undesirable offset currents of a type used by numerous automakers.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruled in favor of Arigna on March 9, 2023. The panel rejected every argument BMW filed against the patent, including denying a contention that the contested claims were covered by prior art. The lawsuit is BMW of North America LLC v. Arigna Technology Limited, No. IPR2021-01531.
Last year, Mr. Heim and Mr. Limbacher helped Arigna prevail in another attempt by BMW to invalidate claims of a separate patent (BMW of North America, LLC, Petitioner v. Arigna Technology Ltd., Patent Owner, No. IPR 2022-00481).
Heim, Payne & Chorush is defending the validity of multiple Arigna patents before the PTAB. The patents cover several circuit design and component innovations related to current amplifiers and offset regulation, temperature compensation, phase correction, ground-fault detection, power detection, and semiconductor design.
Arigna’s patents have been asserted in district court and International Trade Commission proceedings against multiple automobile and wireless phone manufacturers. The law firm previously helped Arigna win crucial decisions against Volkswagen and electronics heavyweights Apple Inc., LG Electronics Inc., and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.