PTAB De-Designates Ex parte Jung

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) designated Ex parte Jung, 2016-008290 (March 22, 2017) as an "informative" decision on July 10, 2018. Ex parte Jung essentially says that the plain meaning of "at least one of A and B" in a claim recitation is the conjunctive. As discussed in our advisory dated July 26, 2018, the Ex parte Jung decision uses overly broad language regarding the proper claim construction of "at least one of," when considering prior Federal Circuit precedence. See SuperGuide Corp. v. DirecTV Enters., Inc., 358 F.3d 870 (Fed. Cir. 2004).

Perhaps recognizing that the decision uses overly broad language, the PTAB de-designated the Ex parte Jung decision on August 7, 2018. Ex parte Jung has thus been removed from the PTAB’s list of informative decisions. Nonetheless, practitioners would be wise to continue to follow the practice pointers discussed in our earlier advisory to help ensure that claim terminology aligns with the intended meaning.