McKool Smith successfully went 10-for-10 on behalf of patent owner Vervain, LLC in a series of patent validity cases filed by two patent challengers at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR) cases filed by Phison Electronics Corporation and Kingston Technology Company, Inc. challenged eight Vervain patents asserted against Phison and Kingston in district court. In each case, the PTAB denied institution of trial, preserving Vervain’s patents in a rare clean sweep for a patent owner at the PTAB.
On July 16, 2025, the PTAB used its discretion to deny institution in IPR2025-00614 and IPR2025-00616, filed by Kingston against U.S. Patents Nos. 8,891,298 and 10,950,300. Earlier in July, the PTAB similarly exercised its discretion to deny Phison’s IPR petitions in IPR2025-00213, IPR2025-00214, IPR2025-00215, PGR2025-00010, and PGR2025-00011 involving U.S. Patents Nos. 9,196,385, 9,997,240, 10,950,300, 11,967,369, and 11,967,370.
These discretionary denials continue the series of Vervain wins started by the May 2025 discretionary denial in Phison’s IPR2025-00212 involving U.S. Patent No. 8,891,298, and denials of institution on the merits in March and April 2025 in Phison’s PGR2024-00047 and PGR2024-00048, involving U.S. Patent Nos. 11,830,546 and 11,854,612.
These ten victories follow McKool Smith’s recognition as the second most active law firm representing patent owners at the PTAB in Patexia’s 2024 PTAB Intelligence Report, the fifth most active PTAB firm overall between 2022 and 2024 according to Law360, and the #1 PTAB firm by win rate for patent owners in 2022 according to IAM.
The McKool Smith team of Alan Whitehurst, Christopher McNett, Christian Dorman, and Christopher Leone represented Vervain in these PTAB cases.
