Wildcat Licensing WI LLC Contends “Nonsensical” Legal Error after PTAB’s Adverse Rulings
CHICAGO – Chicago- and Atlanta-based patent litigation firm AddyHart P.C. has been asked to represent manufacturing and parts assembly patentee Wildcat Licensing WI LLC (“Wildcat”) on appeal of two decisions on obviousness favoring petitioners Atlas Copco Tools and Assembly Systems LLC, General Motors LLC, Magna International Inc., and Faurecia Automotive Seating, LLC (collectively, “Atlas”) by the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
Wildcat maintains petitioners are infringing claims in its patented technology, which involves inter alia electronic control of fastening technologies including settings for, sequencing of, and monitoring applied torque requirements for manufacturing applications in product assembly. Wildcat has asked the Federal Circuit to revisit erroneous rulings of the PTAB with respect to teachings of the prior art with respect to obviousness, and to redress the “nonsensical” legal error of the Board in holding that Wildcat may not enter into evidence documents from a third party that said third party had given permission for Wildcat to use.
Meredith Martin Addy is counsel of record for appellee Wildcat, joined by Jeffrey W. Salmon of Jeffrey W. Salmon Law LLC, longtime counsel to Wildcat Licensing with respect to its range of patented technologies and an attorney noted for his knowledge and experience as special counsel to non-practicing entities (NPEs) seeking to assert their patents.
One of the country’s leading appellate attorneys, Meredith Martin Addy co-founded AddyHart P.C. with longtime colleague Robert P. Hart in 2019. Addy has handled more than 70 appeals to the Federal Circuit and more than 100 cases in US district courts; she has testified to the US Congress on the state of patent law and the Federal Circuit. Addy has held leadership positions at AmLaw 100 law firms and has received numerous accolades, including being the only female attorney named to Band 1 for IP Law in Illinois from Chambers USA for multiple years in succession, as well as having received top rankings from US News & World Report’s Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and IP Stars. She has been named one of the Top 250 Women in IP by Managing IP and IPmetrics LLC, as one of the Most Influential Women in IP Law by IP Law360, as one of Law360’s Female Powerbrokers, and has been to the IAM 1000.
In 2021, Addy was identified in independent research and cited to by IP Law360 as one of five attorneys who have argued most frequently at the Federal Circuit in the last two decades; she is one of only two of the five who are patent-barred.
Jeffrey W. Salmon, patent-barred in Illinois and Indiana and registered to practice before the USPTO, is by training an electrical engineer, and he has two decades of experience representing clients in all forms of judicial proceedings, in highly complex multi-district patent litigation, and in securing extensive global licensing opportunities, handling commercial agreements, and negotiating settlements, and in conducting due diligence on patent portfolios being offered for sale. Salmon focuses his practice on clients with diverse technologies, including in computer software, manufacturing, communications, handheld electronic communications devices, plastics and electro-mechanical applications.
The case is on appeal from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board in IPR2020-00891 and IPR2020-00892. Addy and Salmon are joined by AddyHart partners Robert P. Hart and Benjamin Cappel as co-counsel; Peter F. Snell and Brad M. Scheller of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., are co-counsel for Wildcat.