On July 29, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled in the matter of FanDuel, Inc., v. Interactive Games LLC that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when basing findings “on obviousness issues that the patent owner did not raise in its responses.”
After the PTAB found that FanDuel failed to prove the obviousness of a claim in a disputed patent, FanDuel appealed, arguing that “it was entitled to notice and an opportunity to respond before the Board rejected its obviousness challenge based on insufficient disclosure in the asserted references.” The patent in dispute relates to mobile gambling device technology, and “a method of generating different gaming experiences based on a user’s physical location.”