Mypaq Holdings Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedApril 24, 2025
Docket23-2024
StatusUnpublished

This text of Mypaq Holdings Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Mypaq Holdings Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mypaq Holdings Ltd. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., (Fed. Cir. 2025).

Opinion

Case: 23-2024 Document: 54 Page: 1 Filed: 04/24/2025

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

MYPAQ HOLDINGS LTD., Appellant

v.

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., DELL TECHNOLOGIES INC., ANKER INNOVATIONS LTD., Appellees ______________________

2023-2024, 2023-2025 ______________________

Appeals from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Nos. IPR2022- 00311, IPR2022-00312, IPR2022-01131, IPR2022-01134. ______________________

Decided: April 24, 2025 ______________________

JAMES CARMICHAEL, Carmichael Ip, Tysons, VA, ar- gued for appellant. Also represented by STEPHEN MCBRIDE, MINGHUI YANG.

ELIOT DAMON WILLIAMS, Baker Botts LLP, Washing- ton, DC, for appellee Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Also represented by ERIC J. FARAGI, NEIL P. SIROTA, New York, NY. Case: 23-2024 Document: 54 Page: 2 Filed: 04/24/2025

LAUREN J. DREYER, Baker Botts LLP, Washington, DC, argued for all appellees. Appellee Dell Technologies Inc. also represented by THOMAS A. BROWN, Dell Inc., Hopking- ton, MA; KEVIN J. MEEK, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Austin, TX; BRETT THOMPSEN, Slayden Grubert Beard PLLC, Austin, TX.

ERIC C. COHEN, Rimon, P.C., Raleigh, NC, for appellee Anker Innovations Ltd. Also represented by JASON XU, Washington, DC. ______________________

Before LOURIE, TARANTO, and STARK, Circuit Judges. STARK, Circuit Judge. MyPAQ Holding LTD. (“MyPAQ”) appeals two final written decisions of the United States Patent Trial and Ap- peal Board (“Board”) finding all claims of two of its patents invalid on anticipation and obviousness grounds in inter partes review (“IPR”) proceedings. We affirm. I MyPAQ’s U.S. Patent Nos. 8,477,514 (“the ’514 pa- tent”) and 7,675,759 (“the ’759 patent”) relate to power con- verters for converting a given “input voltage” into a regulated “output voltage.” ’514 patent at 2:42-45. The pa- tents, which have substantially similar specifications, re- late to switch-mode power converters; that is, “power supply or power processing circuit[s] that convert[] an in- put voltage waveform into a specified output voltage wave- form.” Id. The power converters are operated by a controller, which is “configured to dynamically increase or decrease the duty cycle of the power switches therein to regulate the internal or the output characteristic,” e.g., the input or output voltage, “at a desired value,” where the out- put voltage is used to power a load such as a computer or processor. Id. at 2:64-67. The patents purport to improve Case: 23-2024 Document: 54 Page: 3 Filed: 04/24/2025

MYPAQ HOLDINGS LTD. v. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. 3

on prior art devices by providing a system that “adaptively improves power conversion efficiency of a power converter in response to a measured parameter of the power con- verter . . . and includes consideration of” numerous poten- tial variables, including a “system operational state of a load coupled to the power system.” Id. at 6:36-44. Several pieces of prior art are relevant to the issues on appeal. U.S. Patent No. 6,873,136 (“Chagny”) discloses a voltage regulator module (“VRM”) that efficiently powers a computing device by “dynamically chang[ing] the switching frequency of the VRM in accordance with the activity of the processor.” J.A. 1056 at 3:48-50. In an embodiment de- picted in Chagny’s Figure 2A, “VRM 200 includes, among other things, controller module 210 operable to receive ac- tivity input 202 indicative of levels of activity of processor 292 and to select a switching frequency of VRM 200 respon- sive to activity input 202 so that the switching frequency dynamically matches the level of activity of processor 292.” J.A. 14 (citing J.A. 1056 at 3:60-65, 4:66-5:3, 5:9-12; inter- nal quotation marks omitted). Additionally, U.S. Patent No. 6,294,904 B1 (“Hirst”) “discloses a multiple frequency switching power supply that can operate with a first switching frequency when a load is in a normal operating mode and with a second switching frequency when a load is in a standby operating mode.” J.A. 85. Samsung filed two IPR petitions which, collectively, challenged the validity of all claims of the ’514 and ’759 pa- tents. The Board instituted both proceedings, held a con- solidated oral hearing, and issued two final written decisions. The final written decisions explained that Sam- sung had proven all of the claims of the ’514 patent to be anticipated and/or rendered obvious by Chagny and all of the claims of the ’759 patent to be anticipated and/or ren- dered obvious by each of Chagny and Hirst alone. Other Case: 23-2024 Document: 54 Page: 4 Filed: 04/24/2025

grounds of unpatentability asserted by Samsung are not pertinent to this appeal. 1 MyPAQ timely appealed. We have jurisdiction pursu- ant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(4)(A). II Claim construction presents a question of law we re- view de novo, although any underlying factual findings the Board bases on extrinsic evidence are reviewed for sub- stantial evidence. See Perfect Surgical Techs., Inc. v. Olym- pus Am., Inc., 841 F.3d 1004, 1012 (Fed. Cir. 2016). “The ultimate question of obviousness is a legal question that we review de novo with underlying factual findings that we re- view for substantial evidence.” Roku, Inc. v. Universal El- ecs., Inc., 63 F.4th 1319, 1324 (Fed. Cir. 2023). “What the prior art discloses and whether a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine prior-art references are both fact questions that we review for sub- stantial evidence.” Bot M8 LLC v. Sony Interactive Ent. LLC, 66 F.4th 1380, 1384 (Fed. Cir. 2023). Anticipation is also a question of fact reviewed for substantial evidence.

1 MyPAQ has not appealed the Board’s findings that claims 1, 6-10, and 16-18 of the ’759 patent are unpatenta- ble as both anticipated and rendered obvious by Hirst. J.A. 85-99, 103. Therefore, the challenges MyPAQ does make as to the unpatentability of claims 1, 6, and 16 of the ’759 patent (with respect to the “power system controller” and “duty cycle” limitations) are moot, since these three claims would remain unpatentable even if MyPAQ were to prevail on all the issues it presses on appeal. Because each of the issues MyPAQ raises need to be reached in connection with other claims, we reference claims 1, 6, and 16 of the ’759 patent where those claims are implicated by the appellate issues, even though our discussions below have no impact on the patentability of those three claims. Case: 23-2024 Document: 54 Page: 5 Filed: 04/24/2025

MYPAQ HOLDINGS LTD. v. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. 5

See Kennametal, Inc. v. Ingersoll Cutting Tool Co., 780 F.3d 1376, 1381 (Fed. Cir. 2015). Substantial evidence is “such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as ad- equate to support a conclusion.” Consol. Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229 (1938).

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