On July 31, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) reinstated three plaintiff patent claims in the matter of Alacritech, Inc. v. Intel Corp., which the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) had previously ruled obvious over prior art.
The patent in dispute relates to “offloading certain network-related processing tasks from a host computer’s central processing unit (“CPU”) to an intelligent network interface card (“INIC”).” The CAFC stated that the PTAB did not adequately clarify “how the prior art teaches reassembly in the network interface,” preventing the CAFC from determining whether the PTAB had followed a formal path in reaching their conclusions.
