On December 6, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States denied Infinity Computer Products, Inc.'s petition for certiorari (Docket No. 21-413)

In February 2021, the Federal Circuit fully affirmed the district court's ruling that Infinity had used different definitions of “passive link” when trying to overcome initial rejections by the examiner during prosecution and when defending its patent in later reexamination proceedings.  Because it was unclear where the claimed “passive link” ended and the “computer” began, the district court found the patents were invalid as indefinite.

In its petition for certiorari, Infinity argued that “the Federal Circuit struck out on its own, creating a new way in which to find patent claims indefinite” and that “[t]he argument for certiorari is particularly powerful here because this case would allow the Court to answer ‘questions [it left] for another day.'”  In its Brief in Opposition, Oki Data explained that the Federal Circuit had faithfully applied the Supreme Court's standard under Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., 572 U.S. 898 (2014). The Supreme Court denied Infinity's petition, closing the books on a patent infringement dispute that had spanned more than a decade.

Marc R. Labgold, counsel of record for Oki Data noted, “having represented Oki Data in all stages of this case, we are pleased that the Court recognized that there was no conflict with its precedent, finally putting an end to a case that was originally filed over 11 years ago against 16 companies.”  The case, originally filed in June 2010, named nearly every major printer company as defendants including HP, Lexmark, Xerox, Canon, Dell, Brother, Ricoh, Toshiba, Konica-Minolta and Panasonic.

Copies of all filing before the Supreme Court are available here.