Valtrus patent upheld by Federal Circuit after Google challenges Word doc metadata as pre-AIA invention proof

Context: In September 2022, Google petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for inter partes review (IPR) of U.S. Patent No. 6,728,704 (“Method and apparatus for merging result lists from multiple search engines”), held by Valtrus Innovations Ltd. The IPR was instituted in April 2023. In a final written decision issued one year later, the PTAB found Google had failed to show any claims of the ‘704 patent were invalid. Google appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

To Read The Full Story

Continue reading your article with a Membership

Court & counsel

Panel: Circuit Judge Todd M. Hughes, Circuit Judge Tiffany P. Cunningham, and District Judge Allison D. Burroughs (of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, sitting by designation).

Google was represented by Wolf Greenfield’s Nathan R. Speed, John W. Custer, Richard F. Giunta, and Adam R. Wichman.

Valtrus Innovations was represented by Irell & Manella’s Philip J. Warrick, Jonathan M. Lindsay, Jason Sheasby, and Hong Annita Zhong; and Sullivan & Cromwell’s Amy E. Proctor.


  1. See Medtronic, Inc., v. Teleflex Life Scis. Ltd. (Federal Circuit 2023) ↩︎
  2. See Apator Miitors ApS v. Kamstrup A/S (Federal Circuit 2018) ↩︎
  3. See Global Health Sols. LLC v. Selner (Federal Circuit, 2025) ↩︎