PTAB Rejects IPR Challenge to Website Security Patent Claims
Shook, Hardy & Bacon attorneys won an inter partes review before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office when the Board issued a final written decision rejecting arguments that a process for detecting fraudulent conduct based on a user’s telephone number was unpatentable.
The process, developed by communications security company TeleSign, allows the use of a telephone connection to prevent fraudulent users from registering on online websites. Such users can register using false names, addresses or phone numbers, and because certain telephones–such as VoIP or mobile phones–are not restricted to a particular geographic location, current verification processes aren’t enough to deter them. TeleSign’s process analyzes certain characteristics of the potential user’s telephone number to determine whether they are consistent with legitimate information in the provider’s database, allowing the website to block fraudulent users. The PTAB rejected the challenge by cloud communications platform company Twilio to certain claims in the patent, holding that Twilio failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the claims were not patentable.
TeleSign’s asserted patent is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Shook, Hardy & Bacon Partner Jesse Camacho, Of Counsel Amy Foust, Partner Elena McFarland and Of Counsel Mary Jane Peal represented TeleSign before the PTAB.
Twilio v. TeleSign, No. IPR2016-00360, Patent 7,945,034 B2 (PTAB, June 26, 2017); TeleSign v. Twilio, No. 15-3240 (C.D. Cal., filed April 30, 2015).
