Spero v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

Spero v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. The Federal Circuit dismissed Spero's appeals from six IPR final written decisions as moot. It had affirmed the Board's unpatentability determinations for the appealed claims of the '503 patent in a companion appeal, Spero v. Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC, and Spero did not appeal the remaining claims the Board found unpatentable. A companion-appeal affirmance of unpatentability on the same claims can moot parallel IPR appeals, and claims not appealed stay unpatentable, so patentees should appeal every claim they want to preserve. Dismissed as moot. Spero appealed Board final written decisions in six IPRs holding claims 1-28, 30-68, and 70 of U.S. Patent No. 10,894,503 unpatentable. Volkswagen and Porsche were the appellees, and the USPTO Director intervened. In the companion appeal Spero v. Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC, No. 2025-1470, decided the same day, the court affirmed the Board's unpatentability determinations for the appealed claims. The court said Spero otherwise failed to appeal the remaining claims the Board held unpatentable. Because the appealed claims were already held unpatentable on affirmance in the companion case, and the other claims were not appealed, the court dismissed these appeals as moot. The disposition is short and nonprecedential. It gives no analysis of the merits, and the substantive reasoning is in the companion decision, which is not in the provided text. No costs were awarded. standing / jurisdiction waiver / forfeiture § 103 non-precedential