PTAB challenges

Proceedings overview

One active Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceeding, IPR2025-01593, is currently on file for US patent 10278961 and is in the "Trial Instituted" status. This indicates that the PTAB has agreed to review at least some claims of the patent, meaning a defendant currently facing assertion of this patent will benefit from knowing that the validity of the patent's claims is presently under examination, offering potential for invalidation.

IPR2025-01593 — Bonerge Lifescience (Hunan) Co., Ltd. v. Nanjing Nutrabuilding Bio Tech Co Ltd

• Type: Inter Partes Review
• Filed: 2025-09-26
• Status: Trial Instituted. The PTAB has decided to proceed with a trial to review the patentability of challenged claims.
• Judge panel: Information not publicly available in the provided search results.
• Petition grounds: The specific claims challenged, the prior art asserted, and the statutory bases (§ 102 / § 103 / § 112) are not detailed in the provided search snippets. However, IPRs primarily challenge claims under § 102 (novelty) and § 103 (obviousness).
• Institution decision: The proceeding is listed as "Trial Instituted" as of 2026-05-13. The exact date of the institution decision and the panel's detailed reasoning are not explicitly provided in the search results but would be found in the institution order.
• Final Written Decision (if issued): Not yet issued, as the proceeding status is "Trial Instituted."
• Settlement / termination: Not yet applicable.
• Appeal: Not yet applicable, as a Final Written Decision has not been issued.
• Defensive value: This active IPR means that the validity of US10278961's claims is currently being challenged. If the IPR results in the cancellation of claims, it could significantly weaken any assertion of those claims against a defendant. Awaiting the outcome of this proceeding could provide significant leverage.

Strategic summary

Currently, the claims of US10278961 are under active review in IPR2025-01593. As the trial has been instituted, no claims have yet been canceled or sustained through a Final Written Decision. Therefore, all claims are still presumed patentable until a final decision is rendered by the PTAB.

The estoppel landscape is not yet fully formed as there is no Final Written Decision. Once a Final Written Decision is issued, § 315(e)(2) will bar Bonerge Lifescience (Hunan) Co., Ltd. and its privies from asserting in other forums any invalidity ground they raised or reasonably could have raised in the IPR. For other defendants, prior art grounds not asserted or those that could not have reasonably been raised by Bonerge Lifescience (Hunan) Co., Ltd. would still be available.

The proceeding is a single IPR filed by Bonerge Lifescience (Hunan) Co., Ltd. against Nanjing Nutrabuilding Bio Tech Co Ltd. There is no readily available information from the provided search results to indicate a pattern of multiple IPR filings by the same petitioner or aggressive PTAB appeals by the patent owner. Bonerge Lifescience (Hunan) Co., Ltd. appears to be a manufacturer of nutraceutical and cosmeceutical ingredients, which suggests a potential interest in challenging patents in the health and medical sciences domain, aligning with the subject matter of US10278961. Nanjing Nutrabuilding Bio Tech Co., Ltd. is also involved in biomedical technology and chemical products.

Recommended next steps

Since IPR2025-01593 is in the "Trial Instituted" stage, the next critical milestone is the issuance of the Final Written Decision, which is typically due within one year of institution. While the exact institution date isn't provided, the IPR was filed on 2025-09-26. A district court case, Nanjing Nutrabuilding Bio-Tech Co., Ltd. v. Bonerge Lifescience (Hunan) Co., Ltd. (5:25-cv-00271), was filed in the California Central District Court on 2025-01-31, involving the same parties. This parallel litigation might influence the IPR proceedings, as the PTAB sometimes considers the proximity of district court trial dates when exercising discretion to deny institution, though in this case, institution has already occurred.

Defendants facing assertion of US10278961 should closely monitor the progress of IPR2025-01593 via the USPTO PTAB E2E system. Specifically, they should watch for the institution decision document (if it hasn't been found publicly yet) and, most importantly, the Final Written Decision. The FWD will definitively state which, if any, claims are canceled.