SAP's Cert Petition Denied by Supreme Court in Versata Patent Infringement Suit

In earlier posts, I described the $391 million patent infringement judgment awarded to Versata for SAP’s alleged infringement of US Pat. 6,553,350.  I also detailed SAP’s attempts to avoid the judgment by challenging the ‘350 patent in the first covered business method patent review conducted by the Patent Office under the America Invents Act.  (SAP v. Versata, CBM2012-00001)  SAP prevailed in the CBM proceeding in June 2013, but that was well after the district court judgment and about a month after a decision by the Federal Circuit upholding the damages portion of the judgment.  About two weeks before the CBM decision, SAP had filed a request for rehearing and a request for rehearing en banc in an effort to have the Federal Circuit reconsider its decision.

In light of the CBM decision finding the ‘350 patent claims unpatentable, SAP motioned the Federal Circuit to stay the litigation pending a final decision in the CBM proceeding.  The Federal Circuit denied SAP’s the rehearing requests.  On December 12, 2013, SAP petitioned for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court.  In its petition, SAP argued that the district court judgment action should have been stayed by the Federal Circuit in view of the unpatentability of  Versata’s  patent as determined by the Patent Office in the CBM review.

On Tuesday, January 21, 2014, the Supreme Court denied certiorari of SAP’s petition.  The case will return to the district court for its consideration of the vacation of the injunction by the Federal Circuit.  It remains to be seen how the district court will modify the injunction given the CBM decision and whether Versata will be able to collect its $391 million judgment against SAP in view of the Supreme Court’s refusal to take the matter.

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