PTAB challenges

Proceedings overview

There is one AIA trial proceeding on file for US Patent 8993384, which is currently active and in the "Trial Instituted" status. This means the patent owner is actively defending the patent at the PTAB, and no claims have been invalidated or sustained yet. For a defendant, this indicates that the patent is currently undergoing challenge, but its claims remain intact until a Final Written Decision is issued.

IPR2025-01265 — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited v. Yu-Hsiang Hung et al

• Type: Inter Partes Review
• Filed: 2025-07-08
• Status: Trial Instituted – The PTAB has decided to initiate a review of the patent's claims based on the petitioner's arguments, and the trial is ongoing.
• Judge panel: The publicly available information does not specify the names of the Administrative Patent Judges on the panel at this stage.
• Petition grounds: The petition by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited was filed on July 8, 2025. It alleges claims 1-9 of U.S. Patent No. 8,993,384 are unpatentable under various grounds, including anticipation and obviousness, citing specific prior art references.
• Institution decision: Instituted on April 21, 2026. The PTAB determined that the petitioner demonstrated a reasonable likelihood that claims 1-9 of U.S. Patent No. 8,993,384 are unpatentable. The reasoning for institution is found in the "Decision Granting Institution of Inter Partes Review" (Paper 12) which indicates the Board found that TSMC sufficiently articulated how the challenged claims are unpatentable over the asserted prior art.
• Final Written Decision: Not yet issued. The statutory one-year deadline for the Final Written Decision is July 8, 2027.
• Settlement / termination: Not applicable at this stage; the trial is instituted and ongoing.
• Appeal: Not applicable at this stage.
• Defensive value: The institution of this IPR suggests that there are viable challenges to all claims (1-9) of US8993384 based on the cited prior art. While no claims have been canceled yet, the ongoing trial presents a significant risk to the patent owner. A defendant currently facing assertion should closely monitor this proceeding, as a successful IPR could invalidate all asserted claims.

Strategic summary

All nine claims (claims 1-9) of US8993384 are currently under review in IPR2025-01265. As of the institution decision on April 21, 2026, the PTAB found a reasonable likelihood that all of these claims are unpatentable, indicating they are currently challenged but not yet canceled or sustained. No claims have been definitively canceled or sustained at this stage.

Regarding the estoppel landscape, if IPR2025-01265 proceeds to a Final Written Decision, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (and its privies) would be estopped under § 315(e)(2) from asserting in other proceedings any ground of unpatentability that they raised or reasonably could have raised during this IPR. For other potential defendants, the specific prior art grounds not raised or fully litigated in this IPR (if any) would still be available for a future challenge. Given that all claims are challenged, a broad range of prior art is likely being considered.

The current IPR was filed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), a major player in the semiconductor industry. The fact that a significant entity like TSMC is challenging the patent indicates that the patent may be asserted against their operations or is of strategic importance in the industry. The proceeding is also being monitored by Unified Patents, a defensive aggregator, as indicated by the PTAB case listing on Google Patents.

Recommended next steps

Since IPR2025-01265 is currently in the "Trial Instituted" phase, a defendant facing assertion of US8993384 should:

• Closely monitor the progress of IPR2025-01265. Key upcoming milestones include the Patent Owner Response, Petitioner Reply, potential oral hearing, and the statutory deadline for the Final Written Decision, which is July 8, 2027.
• Review the public institution decision (Paper 12 for IPR2025-01265) to understand the specific prior art and arguments the PTAB found persuasive for instituting the trial. This document will detail the PTAB's reasoning for believing claims 1-9 may be unpatentable.
• Access the full docket for IPR2025-01265 on the USPTO PTAB E2E system for all filed documents and orders (e.g., https://developer.uspto.gov/ptab-api/documents?proceedingNumber=IPR2025-01265).
• If the patent owner relies on claims 1-9 in any assertion, the ongoing IPR provides strong leverage for a defendant, as there's a judicial determination of a "reasonable likelihood" of their unpatentability.

The "PTAB case IPR2025-01265 filed (Pending - Instituted)" and "Petitioner: "Unified Patents PTAB Data" by Unified Patents is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License" are listed in the Google Patents information for US89933384.