throbber

`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`
`
`
`
`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
`
`
`
`
`EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
`Petitioner
`
`
`v.
`
`DOCUMENT SECURITY SYSTEMS, INC.
`Patent Owner
`
`
`
`Case IPR2018-01225
`U.S. Patent No. 7,256,486 B2
`
`
`
`
`PETITIONER’S REPLY BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF ITS
`MOTION FOR JOINDER UNDER 37 C.F.R. §§ 42.22 AND 42.122(b)
`
`
`
`
`
`

`

`
`
`Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Everlight”) respectfully submits this Reply to
`
`the Oppositions of Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. et al. in IPR2018-00333 (“SSC”)
`
`and Document Security Systems, Inc., (“PO”), to Everlight's Motion to
`
`join Everlight’s IPR2018-01225 (“Everlight’s IPR”) with pending IPR IPR2018-
`
`00333 filed by SSC (“SSC’s IPR”). The PTAB has authorized the filing of this
`
`Reply in an email dated August 1, 2018.
`
`I.
`
`SSC/PO MISTATE EVERLIGHT’S PROPOSED INVOLVEMENT
`
`SSC and PO argue that Everlight wants to be actively involved in SSC's IPR,
`
`despite Everlight’s representations by email, and in its Motion, that Everlight will be
`
`a “complete understudy” and do nothing unless and until SSC abandons its IPR.
`
`Everlight’s Motion explained that “Everlight will not file additional briefs outside of
`
`the consolidated filings, will not request any additional deposition time, and will not
`
`request any additional oral hearing time.” Motion at 6-7. In addition, Everlight
`
`explained that it will waive its expert declaration if SSC participates in its IPR to the
`
`point that SSC’s expert is deposed. Motion at (“Assuming SSC does not terminate
`
`its IPR before its expert is deposed, Everlight agrees to rely entirely on, and be bound
`
`by, the expert declaration(s) and deposition in the SSC IPR.”). Everlight’s proposal
`
`is significantly different than the situation in the ZTE case relied upon by SSC. In
`
`the ZTE case, the expert for the lead petitioner (Sony) had already been deposed, yet
`

`
`2
`
`

`

`the copy-petitioner (ZTE) had not waived its expert’s declaration. ZTE Corp. v.
`
`Adaptix, Inc., IPR2015-01184, Paper 10 at 5.
`
`SSC and PO rely heavily on the word “consolidated” in Everlight’s Motion,
`
`which was intended to refer to the fact that SSC’s briefs would also be filed on behalf
`
`of Everlight as a complete understudy, not that Everlight would insist on having
`
`input. Similarly, SSC cites to prior discussions that address whether an agreement
`
`was reached between the two Petitioners as the how “consolidated filings” would be
`
`handled. SSC Opp. at 4. SSC then argues that since no prior agreement was reached
`
`between SSC and Everlight, joinder would complicate the proceeding and would not
`
`allow SSC to be the “master of its Complaint”. Id. To be clear, Everlight will not
`
`demand or even request that it has any input to any motion, brief, exhibit, deposition,
`
`teleconference, Hearing, or any other aspect of the joined IPR, unless SSC abandons
`
`its IPR. SSC and PO will proceed in the exact same manner as if Everlight had never
`
`joined. Only if SSC terminates, will Everlight get involved at all.
`
`SSC’s position that joinder would be unfair to SSC because they did the work,
`
`would do away with copy-petitions altogether, despite the fact that the PTAB and
`
`Federal Circuit have long-acknowledged and permitted these streamlined procedures.
`
`Along these lines, the underlying litigation in the Central District of California was
`
`stayed on July 27, 2018, pending resolution of the IPRs filed by SSC against the
`
`asserted patents, including the '486 patent. Everlight agreed to be estopped by the

`
`3
`
`

`

`results of SSC’s IPR in connection with the stay of the litigation.
`
`II.
`
`EVERLIGHT’S PETITION IS NOT TIME-BARRED
`
`PO argues that Everlight’s Petition is time-barred because of the Complaint it
`
`filed in Texas in April 2017, but then voluntarily dismissed without prejudice. At the
`
`time of filing the instant Motion, Everlight relied on precedent from the Board and
`
`Federal Circuit, which had recognized that a voluntary dismissal without prejudice
`
`nullifies a Complaint and does not activate the one-year bar. See, e.g., Shaw
`
`Industries Group v. Automated Creel Systems, 817 F. 3d 1293, 1301 (Fed. Cir. 2016)
`
`(upholding Board's Decision that voluntary dismissal of a suit without prejudice
`
`"nullifie[d] the effect of the service of the complaint" such that the IPR petition was
`
`not time barred.) Everlight recognizes that the Federal Circuit has just issued a
`
`contrary ruling in Click-To-Call Technologies, LP v. Ingenio, Inc., 2015-1242 (Fed.
`
`Cir. August 16, 2018).
`
`Nevertheless, even if the Board finds that initial filing of the withdrawn
`
`Complaint in Texas activates the statutory bar, 35 U.S.C. 315(b) expressly excludes
`
`joinder situations from the time-bar. Since joinder is appropriate as explained
`
`above, there is no time-bar issue. To this end, Board panels have consistently
`
`allowed otherwise time-barred petitioners to join IPRs under § 315(c), where (1) the
`
`time-barred petitioner promised to simply “maintain a secondary role in the
`
`proceeding,” Pfizer, Inc. v. Biogen, Inc., No. IPR2017-01115, 2017 WL 3081981
`

`
`4
`
`

`

`(P.T.A.B. July 18, 2017), Paper No. 13; or (2) where the time-barred petitioner
`
`wanted to attend depositions and the oral hearing, but not file papers, engage in
`
`discovery, or participate in any deposition or oral hearing. Ion Geophysical Corp. v.
`
`WesternGeco LLC, No. IPR2015-00565, 2015 WL 1906173, at *4 (P.T.A.B. Apr.
`
`23, 2015), Paper No. 14.
`
`Everlight has offered to do far less than what the Board has allowed in many
`
`time-barred joinder situations. Everlight will not attend depositions or the Hearing,
`
`or contact the other parties at all; Everlight has offered to do nothing, unless the lead
`
`Petitioner abandons its IPR.
`
`
`

`

`
`5
`
`

`

`
`
`III. CONCLUSION
`For the foregoing reasons and those set forth in Everlight’s Motion, Everlight
`
`respectfully requests that the proceedings be joined.
`
`
`
`

`
`Dated: August 24, 2018
`
`
`
`Respectfully submitted,
`
`
`By /John F. Rabena /
`
`John F. Rabena Reg. #38,584
`jrabena@sughrue.com
`2100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Suite 800
`Washington, DC 20037
`Telephone: (202) 293-7060
`Facsimile: (202) 293-7860
`
`
`
`6
`
`

`

`CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
`
`The undersigned certifies that a complete copy of this PETITIONER’S
`
`REPLY BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR JOINDER UNDER 37
`
`C.F.R. §§ 42.22 AND 42.122(b) was served in both IPR2018-00333 and IPR2018-
`
`01225 by serving the correspondence email addresses of record as follows:
`
`Patent Owner
`Wayne M. Helge (Reg. No. 56,905)
`James T. Wilson (Reg. No. 41,439)
`Aldo Noto (Reg. No. 35,628)
`DAVIDSON BERQUIST JACKSON &
`GOWDEY, LLP
`8300 Greensboro Dr., Suite 500
`McLean, VA 22102
`Telephone: (571) 765-7700
`Fax : (571) 765-7200
`Email: whelge@dbjg.com
`Email: jwilson@dbjg.com
`Email: anoto@dbjg.com
`
`Petitioner in IPR2018-00333
`Michael Eisenberg (Reg. No. 50,643)
`michael.eisenberg@hklaw.com
`31 West 52nd Street
`New York, NY 10019
`Telephone: (212) 513-3529
`Facsimile: (212) 385-9010
`
`Charles H. Sanders (Reg. No. 47,053)
`charles.sanders@lw.com
`Latham & Watkins LLP
`200 Clarendon Street
`Boston, MA 02116
`
`Jonathan M. Strang (Reg. No. 61,724)
`jonathan.strang@lw.com
`Latham & Watkins LLP
`555 Eleventh Street, NW, Ste. 1000
`Washington, DC 20004-1304
`
`
`
`By /John F. Rabena/
`John F. Rabena Reg. #38,584
`SUGHRUE MION, PLLC
`jrabena@sughrue.com
`2100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Suite 800
`Washington, DC 20037
`Telephone: (202) 293-7060
`Facsimile: (202) 293-7860
`
`Counsel for EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
`10
`

`
`

This document is available on Docket Alarm but you must sign up to view it.


Or .

Accessing this document will incur an additional charge of $.

After purchase, you can access this document again without charge.

Accept $ Charge
throbber

Still Working On It

This document is taking longer than usual to download. This can happen if we need to contact the court directly to obtain the document and their servers are running slowly.

Give it another minute or two to complete, and then try the refresh button.

throbber

A few More Minutes ... Still Working

It can take up to 5 minutes for us to download a document if the court servers are running slowly.

Thank you for your continued patience.

This document could not be displayed.

We could not find this document within its docket. Please go back to the docket page and check the link. If that does not work, go back to the docket and refresh it to pull the newest information.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

You need a Paid Account to view this document. Click here to change your account type.

Your account does not support viewing this document.

Set your membership status to view this document.

With a Docket Alarm membership, you'll get a whole lot more, including:

  • Up-to-date information for this case.
  • Email alerts whenever there is an update.
  • Full text search for other cases.
  • Get email alerts whenever a new case matches your search.

Become a Member

One Moment Please

The filing “” is large (MB) and is being downloaded.

Please refresh this page in a few minutes to see if the filing has been downloaded. The filing will also be emailed to you when the download completes.

Your document is on its way!

If you do not receive the document in five minutes, contact support at support@docketalarm.com.

Sealed Document

We are unable to display this document, it may be under a court ordered seal.

If you have proper credentials to access the file, you may proceed directly to the court's system using your government issued username and password.


Access Government Site

We are redirecting you
to a mobile optimized page.





Document Unreadable or Corrupt

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket

We are unable to display this document.

Refresh this Document
Go to the Docket