Apple’s Reexamination Counsel Avoids Deposition

#Apple is currently suing #Kodak in the Western District of New York for infringing a series of patents, among them, U.S. Patent No. 5,634,074. Kodak initially replied with the customary defenses, but has now sought permission from the court to amend its pleadings to include an inequitable conduct defense, specifically that the “074 patent is unenforceable due to inequitable conduct committed by Apple, an inventor of the 074 patent and/or it attorneys during reexamination of the ‘074 patent.” The ‘074 reexamination was requested in April 2010, and completed at the end of May 2011, when the PTO issued a reexamination certificate confirming the validity of all the ‘074 claims.