Koss filed a patent infringement suit against Bose asserting the '155, '934, and '025 patents, after which Bose petitioned for inter partes review of all three patents before the PTAB. The district court case was stayed pending resolution of the IPRs, which were instituted.
At the same time that Koss filed the infringement suit against Bose, Koss also filed an infringement suit asserting the same patents against Plantronics. Plantronics moved to dismiss Koss's First Amended Complaint, claiming the patents were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for claiming patent-ineligible subject matter. The district court agreed and granted Plantronics motion.
Koss then filed a Second Amended Complaint against Plantronics, reasserting only certain claims of the '934 and '025 patents, which Plantronics again moved to dismiss under 35 U.S.C. § 101. This motion was fully briefed. However, rather than wait for the court to decide the motion, Koss voluntarily stipulated to dismiss the litigation with prejudice and elected to do so without asking the district court to vacate its prior invalidity order. Koss also did not appeal the final judgment dismissing Koss's suit against Plantronics with prejudice.
After the Plantronics dismissal, Bose moved to dismiss the appeals of the IPRs before the Federal Circuit as moot, arguing Plantronics invalidated the claims at issue. The Court found that the Plantronics court's invalidity order, which was interlocutory when issued, merged with the final judgment dismissing the case with prejudice. Thus, the order was final and appealable when Koss stipulated to the dismissal of its suit, and Koss's failure to appeal or vacate the invalidity order preserved the collateral estoppel effect of that order. The Federal Circuit thus found Koss's patent claims invalid, removing any case or controversy from the appeal of the IPRs and rendering them moot.
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