Press Release

Haynes and Boone Partners Kyle Howard, Greg Webb, David O'Dell and Russ Emerson represented Riverbed Technology, Inc. before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a multimillion-dollar dispute over data compression patents.

In particular, the Haynes and Boone team challenged claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,643,513 and U.S. Patent No. 7,378,992 in inter partes review proceedings before the PTAB. Following an oral hearing in July 2017 handled by Howard and Webb, the PTAB issued Final Written Decisions on Oct. 27 and Oct. 30 holding that all of the challenged claims were unpatentable as obvious over a combination of prior art references, including claims that were the subject of a May 2017 jury trial in Tyler, Texas. Because of the efforts and close cooperation of Haynes and Boone's combined trial and IPR teams, all claims at issue in the Tyler Realtime litigation have been ruled invalid, not infringed, or both.

Ryan Damon, senior vice president and general counsel for Riverbed, said he was very pleased with the results, noting that "the Haynes and Boone team continually utilizes a deep understanding of the technology and extensive experience before the PTAB to achieve great results for Riverbed, including the recent decisions in the IPRs invalidating the '513 and '992 patents."

Since the America Invents Act created inter partes review (IPR) and other new procedures for handling patent disputes, lawyers in Haynes and Boone's Intellectual Property Practice have been involved in more than 200 proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, helping clients protect their patents and invalidate others' claims. According to Docket Alarm, 2017, Haynes and Boone has the highest institution rate (95 percent) and the highest final decision rate (97 percent) for canceling claims among the top 20 law firms filing IPRs on behalf of petitioners.