PTAB challenges

Proceedings overview

A single AIA trial proceeding, IPR2025-01085, was filed against US patent 11936693. This proceeding was terminated due to a settlement between the parties, meaning no claims of the patent were invalidated or confirmed patentable by the PTAB. This leaves the patent's claims entirely untested by the PTAB, presenting a neutral defensive posture for potential defendants.

IPR2025-01085 — Orca Security Ltd. v. Wiz Inc.

• Type: Inter Partes Review
• Filed: 2025-06-04
• Status: Terminated-Settled. This indicates that the parties reached an agreement and the proceeding was dismissed before a substantive decision on the merits of the patent's claims.
• Judge panel: Not publicly available for this terminated proceeding, as it settled before institution.
• Petition grounds: Details on specific claims challenged, prior art, and statutory bases (e.g., § 102 / § 103) are not publicly available due to the settlement before substantive proceedings.
• Institution decision: No institution decision was issued, as the proceeding was terminated due to settlement.
• Final Written Decision: No Final Written Decision was issued due to the settlement and termination of the proceeding.
• Settlement / termination: The proceeding was terminated on 2026-01-14. This termination was part of a broader settlement in a district court litigation (Case 1:23-cv-00758-JLH in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware) between Petitioner Orca Security Ltd. and Patent Owner Wiz Inc., which resulted in the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims with prejudice. The specific terms of the settlement are confidential.
• Appeal: No appeal was filed, as the proceeding terminated prior to a final decision on patentability.
• Defensive value: As this IPR was settled and terminated before any claims were evaluated on the merits by the PTAB, the patent's claims remain untested by an AIA trial. This means a defendant facing assertion of this patent today would need to independently assess the validity of the claims, as there is no PTAB decision to rely upon for invalidation or hardening.

Strategic summary

All claims of US11936693 remain UNTESTED by the PTAB, as the single IPR filed against it, IPR2025-01085, was terminated due to settlement. No claims were canceled or sustained through a Final Written Decision.

The estoppel landscape for this patent is relatively clear. While Orca Security Ltd. and its privies are likely estopped from re-challenging US11936693 on any grounds that were raised or reasonably could have been raised in IPR2025-01085, this estoppel generally only applies to that specific petitioner. Other potential defendants or petitioners are not affected by this settlement and would be free to file their own IPR petitions if they identify relevant prior art and grounds.

Regarding pattern signals, only one IPR was filed against US11936693. The early settlement of this IPR suggests that both parties, in the context of their broader litigation, found it mutually beneficial to resolve disputes outside of a full PTAB trial on this specific patent. The news reports indicate that other IPRs involving patents asserted by Orca against Wiz did result in claims being found unpatentable, but those were different patents belonging to Orca.

Recommended next steps

Since IPR2025-01085 was terminated by settlement, no claims of US11936693 have been invalidated by the PTAB. For a defendant currently being asserted against, the patent's validity has not been tested in an AIA trial. Therefore, any new defendant would need to conduct their own prior art search and analysis to determine the strength of a potential invalidity challenge at the PTAB or in district court.