SGB Scores Hat Trick at the PTAB for Lightspeed Commerce Inc.

On November 3, 2023, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued the last of three final written decisions concluding that all 88 challenged claims of three patents owned by CloudofChange, LLC are unpatentable.

In October 2021, CloudofChange sued Lightspeed in Waco district court for alleged willful infringement of two patents related to point-of-sale systems. A few months earlier, a Waco jury had found that NCR Corporation willfully infringed the same two patents and awarded CloudofChange $13.2 million in damages.

In January 2022, the Patent Office issued a third patent to CloudofChange. CloudofChange then amended its complaint against Lightspeed to allege infringement of this third patent. SGB filed inter partes review (IPR) petitions at the PTAB challenging the claims of all three asserted patents.

The PTAB instituted all three IPRs, but the district court denied Lightspeed’s motion to stay the lawsuit. As a result, the district court and PTAB proceedings continued in parallel, and a jury trial was scheduled to begin in Waco on September 25, 2023. However, on September 24—after a jury had already been empaneled—the trial was postponed and ultimately reset for February 2024.

Now, just five weeks after the district court trial would have concluded, the PTAB has issued final written decisions finding all asserted claims of all three CloudofChange patents unpatentable.

In its final written decisions, the PTAB sided with Lightspeed on nearly every disputed issue. The PTAB found all claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,400,640 and 10,083,012 unpatentable on multiple, distinct grounds, and all challenged claims of U.S. Patent No. 11,226,793 unpatentable without reaching the Petition’s second ground. In total, the PTAB found all 88 claims Lightspeed challenged were unpatentable.

“The PTAB’s decisions correctly recognize that CloudofChange’s patents did not contribute any new technology to the point-of-sale industry,” said lead counsel Joey Gray. “While Lightspeed was prepared to prove to a Waco jury that CloudofChange’s patents are invalid and not infringed, we are pleased the PTAB has now spoken decisively on the question of validity.”

Lightspeed’s IPRs are IPR2022-00779 (’640 patent) (FWD), IPR2022-00997 (’012 patent) (FWD), and IPR2022-01143 (’793 patent) (FWD). The lawsuit is CloudofChange, LLC v. Lightspeed POS Inc., Civil Action No. WA:21-CV-01102-ADA in the Waco Division of the Western District of Texas.

The SGB team representing Lightspeed includes Joey Gray, Tecuan Flores, Darryl Adams, Brian Banner, Valerie Barker, Truman Fenton, Clark Oberembt, and Nellie Slayden.