Successful Defense of Corning Inc. in a Patent Invalidation Challenge Brought by Corning’s Competitor AGC, Inc. [Korean IP Trial and Appeal Board (“KIPTAB”) Decision dated Sept. 30, 2021]
2021.09.30.
Yulchon successfully defended the validity of Corning’s patent directed
to strengthened cover glass, thereby winning a key battle for Corning in what
may be considered a global patent war between two rival companies for dominance
in the cover glass market.
Corning and AGC are global rivals in the strengthened cover glass market
for display devices such as mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches and notebook
PCs. This rivalry eventually led to a global patent war, including a patent
invalidation trial before the KIPTAB brought against Corning by AGC.
Equipped with the relevant technical knowledge and with extensive
experience in invalidity trials and in multi-jurisdictional patent cases,
Yulchon vigorously defended Corning against numerous grounds of invalidity
asserted by AGC in the KIPTAB trial. After a lengthy trial proceeding that
spanned more than sixteen months, the KIPTAB ruled in favor of Corning and
found all challenged claims patentable over all grounds of invalidity asserted
by AGC.
Yulchon’s victory is all the more significant in that Yulchon overcame
not only novelty and inventiveness challenges, but also written description and
enablement challenges. In particular, the challenged patent claims were
so-called “parametric claims,” which broadly define the claimed invention by
physical properties and are thus more strictly scrutinized by the KITPAB.
Yulchon successfully persuaded the KIPTAB that Corning’s parametric claims are
enabled and sufficiently described, despite the stricter scrutiny against such
claims.
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