Patent Owner won a Pyrrhic victory in Facebook v. TLI Communications, IPR2014-00566, wherein the Board denied the Petition, but for a reason that calls into question the future viability of the patent-in-suit. Namely, the Board found that it could not construe the means-plus-function claim limitation at issue and, as such, the claim is indefinite and not amenable to construction.

More specifically, the Board sought to construe “means for allocating classification information” from the patent-at-issue. Order at 7. Petitioner stated that the specification did not disclose any algorithm for performing the allocating function. Id. at 10. Of course, a lack of sufficient disclosure of structure, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 6, renders a claim indefinite, and thus not amendable to construction. Id. 13. The Board quoted the Federal Circuit on this point: “If a claim is indefinite, the claim, by definition, cannot be construed.” Enzo Biochem, Inc. v. Applera Corp., 599 F.3d 1325, 1332 (Fed. Cir. 2010). Because the claims were not amenable to construction, the Board was unable to conclude that there is a reasonable likelihood that Petitioner would prevail in its challenge of claim and dependent claims therefrom, and Institution was denied. Paper 14 at 18.  As such, Patent Owner’s patent survives…for now.