Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. defended patent rights in connection with an inter partes review petition filed by a competitor that challenged one of its key patents for a laser dicing process. Our firm filed a response to the petition in October 2016. In December 2016, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board denied the competitor's petition, preserving the validity of all 55 challenged claims of Hamamatsu's patent.
Concurrently, the team filed four new continuation patent applications under the Track One expedited examination program, based on a pending continuation application relating to the challenged patent. After the competitor's petition was denied, the four continuation applications were issued as patents, yielding four new patents in a key area of technology while strengthening the patent that our client's competitor had originally challenged.
