Patent Board Narrows Shure’s BMA Patent
August 17 2020 - 9:10AM
ClearOne (NASDAQ:CLRO), a leading global provider of audio and
visual communication solutions, announced that the Patent Trial and
Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark
Office (PTO) issued a decision today significantly limiting Shure’s
U.S. Patent No. 9,565,493 (the “’493 Patent”). The ’493
Patent was Shure’s attempt to patent aspects of beamforming
microphone arrays (BMAs), a technology that ClearOne has pioneered.
Shure obtained the ’493 Patent in 2017 with 40 claims directed
at circular BMA arrays and ceiling-tile-shaped BMAs. ClearOne
challenged the patent in 2019 based in part on its own earlier
patents as prior art to Shure. The PTAB largely agreed with
ClearOne. Today’s decision cancels 38 of the 40 claims
originally in the ’493 Patent. The two surviving original
claims are narrow dependent claims relating to circular BMA
arrays. Shure also lost all of the original claims directed
at ceiling-tile-shaped BMAs in the ’493 Patent and was forced to
replace all eleven such claims with eleven new narrower claims.
“Rather than 40 claims, the ’493 Patent now has just 13 narrower
claims. ClearOne is confident that its products do not
infringe those claims, and we believe that the ’493 Patent in its
present wounded form has no real significance in the market,” said
ClearOne Chair and CEO Zee Hakimoglu.
ClearOne’s BMA technology is protected by at least a dozen
patents and pending patent applications. ClearOne has
asserted that Shure infringes several ClearOne patents, including
U.S. Patent No. 9,813,806, which Shure is preliminarily enjoined
from infringing and which was a key piece of prior art against the
’493 Patent in today’s decision. “This is another significant
victory for ClearOne,” added Hakimoglu.
The case number at the PTAB is IPR2019-00683, which can be
viewed here.
About ClearOneClearOne is a global market
leader enabling conferencing, collaboration, and network streaming
solutions. The performance and simplicity of its advanced,
comprehensive solutions offer unprecedented levels of
functionality, reliability, and scalability. Visit ClearOne at
www.clearone.com.
© Copyright 2020, ClearOne, Inc. All rights reserved. ClearOne©,
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ClearOne's products are trademarks and/or service marks of
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property of their respective owners.
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Contact:
Bob Griffin
Griffin360
+1 212 481 3456 x16
bob@griffin360.com
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