DENVER (BRAIN) Fox Factorys three-year-old patent lawsuit against SRAM will be fought over narrower claims after a Patent Office board sided with SRAM and found that all the relevant claims in a Fox patent are unpatentable.

Fox sued SRAM in a California District Court in July 2022, charging that some of SRAM's RockShox forks infringed on its 2013 patent related to bleed valves and some of its rear shocks infringed on its 2017 patent related to an adjustable hydraulic bottom-out mechanism.

Fox filed the suspension suit a few months after Fox and SRAM finally settled a six-year-long patent legal battle related to narrow-wide chainrings.

The suspension patent case was later transferred to the Colorado District Court where a jury trial had been scheduled for this fall. But the proceedings were stayed in January after SRAM asked the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to review one of the patents (US 8,550,223, attached). On June 24 the board issued a decision that sided with SRAM, finding that 15 of the patents 19 claims all of the patent's claims that were relevant to Foxs case were unpatentable because they were obvious or anticipated by prior art.

Following that decision, Fox told the court it was removing its claims related to that patent from its complaint, but indicated it intends to go forward with its claims related to the other patent (US 9,739,331, attached). Fox asked the court to schedule a status conference and a new trial date. It also noted that it recently held unsuccessful settlement talks with SRAM in Colorado.

SRAM responded that it was open to a status conference but said scheduling a trial date was premature because the courts rulings on some of SRAMs pre-trial motions might obviate the need for a trial.

The court on Tuesday referred the case to a magistrate judge who will schedule a status hearing and hear motions.