Automated Merchandising v. Lee, No. 14-1728 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 10, 2015)

From the Opinion

The passage below is extracted verbatim from the opening of the document. It has not been editorially summarized — consult the full opinion for the court's complete reasoning.

Automated Merchandising Systems, Inc. (AMS) peti- tioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office to terminate four pending inter partes reexaminations of four AMS patents that had been the subject of a patent - infringement suit between AMS and Crane Co. , the requester of the reexamination s. After AMS and Crane entered into a consent judgment , which dismissed the infringement suit and stated that the parties stipulated to the validity of the patents , AMS argued to the PTO that the reexaminations must stop because, under 35 U.S.C.