L&P Convinces Board to Institute Four IPR Trials for National Beef

The  Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) instituted trials based on four petitions for inter partes review (IPR) in IPR2024-00183, IPR2024-00185, IPR2024-00186, and IPR2024-01156 filed on behalf of L&P Client National Beef Packing Company, LLC (National Beef).  The petitions are directed to U.S. Patent Nos. 7,534,584, 8,822,143, 9,637,771, and 9,845,486, which are owned by and were asserted by the Institute for Environmental Health, Inc. (IEH).  IEH’s patents are directed to methods for detecting microbial contamination in meat.  

IEH filed preliminary responses on October 30, 2024 and emphasized that a reexamination had been previously brought by bioMérieux Inc. against one of the patents.  On November 25, 2024, National Beef sought permission to file a stipulation in accordance with the PTAB’s precedential decision in Sotera Wireless, Inc. v. Masimo Corp., IPR2020-01019, Paper 12 at 18–19 (Dec. 1, 2020).  On November 26, 2024, National Beef filed its Sotera stipulation and agreed not to pursue in the copending district court litigation any ground that National Beef raised or reasonably could have raised in each IPR.  

In the institution decisions that issued today, the PTAB adopted the petitioner’s analyses as to the asserted obviousness of the challenged claims.  The lead counsel and back up counsel for the four cases includes L&P lawyer Kevin Laurence, Seth Black of Black IP, and L&P lawyer Matt Phillips.