Fed. Cir. Affirms Twilio’s Loss on Telephony Patents
Written June 16, 2020
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 10, 2020, held that Twilio Inc. can’t revive parts of its telephony patents that were canceled by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Twilio Inc. v. Telesign Corp., Fed. Cir., No. 19-1842, 6/10/20.
Twilio’s technology allows apps to make phone calls and send text messages through its application programming interfaces (APIs). Telesign Corp. challenged two Twilio patents—U.S. Patent Nos. 8,755,376 and 8,837,465—at the PTAB after being sued by Twilio for infringement.
The PTAB invalidated the relevant parts of the patents, finding them obvious based on a combination of an earlier patent and patent application. The Federal Circuit affirmed, finding, among other things, that an ordinary artisan would be motivated to combine the prior art to invent the patented technology.