Causam v. ecobee (Fed. Cir., October 15, 2025) 2024-1958

This episode concerns the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's opinion in the case of Causam Enterprises, Inc. v. ecobee Technologies ULC, decided on October 15, 2025. The core issue is an appeal from a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board), which had ruled that several claims of Causam's U.S. Patent No. 10,394,268 were unpatentable due to obviousness following an inter partes review (IPR) initiated by ecobee. The court addresses two main arguments raised by Causam: first, a constitutional challenge concerning the Board's failure to determine the patent's true owner, which the court rejects on the grounds of third-party standing; and second, a challenge to the Board's construction of a key claim limitation regarding the generation of measurement and verification data. Ultimately, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board's decision, finding no reversible error in either the ownership handling or the claim construction, thereby upholding the finding that the challenged claims are unpatentable.

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