Peter Henrik Pedersen v. Unified Patents, LLC

N OTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
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PETER HENRIK PEDERSEN,
Appellant
v.
UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC,
Appellee
______________________
2024-2090
______________________
Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR2023-
00029.
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Decided: March 26, 2026
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ROBERT G REENSPOON, Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig
PLLC, Chicago, IL, argued for appellant. Also represented
by WILLIAM W. F LACHSBART , MARK M AGAS ; T HOMAS
MANSFIELD D UNLAP , Vienna, VA.
K ELLY ROSE HUGHES , Unified Patents, LLC, Washing-
ton, DC, argued for appellee. Also represented by ROSHAN
MANSINGHANI; ALYSSA J. HOLTSLANDER, Chevy Chase, MD.
______________________
Case: 24-2090 Document: 44 Page: 1 Filed: 03/26/2026

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PEDERSEN v. UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC 2
Before L OURIE and H UGHES , Circuit Judges, and K LEEH ,
Chief District Judge.1
K LEEH , Chief District Judge.
Peter Henrik Pedersen appeals from a final written de-
cision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in inter partes
review No. IPR2023-00029, holding claims 1 and 14-17 of
U.S. Patent No. 6,965,920 unpatentable as obvious. Be-
cause we find that the Board’s decision is supported by sub-
stantial evidence, we affirm.
I
The ’920 patent is generally directed to the automatic
filtering of electronic messages via preferences provided by
users in messenger and recipient profiles. More specifi-
cally, the ’920 patent discloses a system and method for the
central specification and management of how electronic
messages received from a plurality of messengers or
sources are distributed to individual recipients. ’920 pa-
tent, col. 2, ll. 46-50. Recipient-users provide recipient pro-
file data via a recipient profile input form. Id. at col. 3 ll. 5-
12. At issue here on appeal, that data includes “a plurality
of messenger specific profiles, each profile indicating deliv-
ery parameters for where, when and how specific types of
messages from each messenger are to be delivered to the
recipient.” Id. at col. 3, ll. 19-23.
As disclosed in claim 1, upon which claims 14-17 de-
pend, the ’920 patent’s “electronic message management
system” comprises, among other limitations, “a recipient
profile application for receiving recipient profile data from
recipients via the global network and storing the recipient
data in the database, the profile data including delivery
1 Honorable Thomas S. Kleeh, Chief District Judge,
United States District Court for the Northern District of
West Virginia, sitting by designation.
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PEDERSEN v. UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC 3
parameters specified by a recipient of where, when and how
specific types of messages from specific messengers are de-
livered to the recipient.” ’920 patent, col. 11, ll. 26-31 (“lim-
itation 1.4”) (emphasis added).
The Board found that the challenged claims would
have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art
based on Funk2 in view of either Law3 or Kamakura4 (J.A.
51), locating limitation 1.4, at issue here, in Funk (J.A. 31-
36, 45). Pedersen appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28
U.S.C. § 1295(a)(4)(A).
II
We review the Board’s legal conclusions de novo and its
factual findings for substantial evidence. Rambus Inc. v.
Rea, 731 F.3d 1248, 1251 (Fed. Cir. 2013). A Board’s factual
finding is “supported by substantial evidence if a ‘reasona-
ble mind might accept a particular evidentiary record as
adequate to support a conclusion.’” Airbus S.A.S. v. Fire-
pass Corp., 941 F.3d 1374, 1381 (Fed. Cir. 2019) (quoting
Dickinson v. Zurko, 527 U.S. 150, 162 (1999)) (finding sub-
stantial evidence for obviousness even where “the Board's
analysis could have been more developed”). Obviousness is
a question of law, based on underlying factual findings, in-
cluding what a reference teaches. Apple Inc. v. Samsung
Elecs. Co., 839 F.3d 1034, 1047, 1051 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (en
banc).
2 U.S. Patent No. 5,937,162 for “Method and Appa-
ratus for High Volume E-mail Delivery.” J.A. 876-913.
3 U.S. Patent No. 7,058,586 for “Information Deliv-
ery System for Providing Senders with a Recipient’s Mes-
saging Preferences” (not included in Joint Appendix).
4 U.S. Patent No. 6,047,310 for “Information Dissem-
inating Apparatus for Automatically Delivering Infor-
mation to Suitable Distributees.” J.A. 914-947.
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PEDERSEN v. UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC 4
Pedersen argues that the Board failed to identify where
Funk discloses the messenger-specific, user-specified deliv-
ery parameters of limitation 1.4. Open. Br. 19-24. A patent
claim is unpatentable when “the differences between the
subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are
such that the subject matter as a whole would have been
obvious at the time the invention was made to a person
having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject mat-
ter pertains.” 35 U.S.C. § 103(a).5 Among other factual de-
terminations, obviousness depends on the scope and
content of the prior art and the differences between the
prior art and the claims at issue. In re Kubin, 561 F.3d
1351, 1355 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (citing Graham v. John Deere
Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17-18 (1966)).
While Pedersen conceded below that “field 806 [of
Funk] teaches limitation ‘specific types of messages,’”
Pedersen argued that Funk “does not teach ‘from specific
messengers.’” J.A. 347 (Patent Owner Response 28). Now,
on appeal, Pedersen contends that the Board’s evidence in-
correctly relies on Funk’s information-source-specific deliv-
ery parameters as teaching limitation 1.4’s messenger-
specific delivery parameters. Open. Br. 19. We disagree.
As Pedersen notes (Open. Br. 20), the Board located
messenger-specific delivery parameters in several portions
of Funk, adopting Unified Patents’ arguments and its ex-
pert’s opinions regarding those portions. J.A. 33-34.
5 Congress amended § 103 when it passed the Leahy-
Smith America Invents Act (AIA). See Pub. L. No. 112-29,
§ 3(c), 125 Stat. 284, 287 (2011). However, the pre-AIA §
103 applies here because the application that led to the ’920
patent never contained a claim having an effective filing
date on or after March 16, 2013, or a reference under 35
U.S.C §§ 120, 121, or 365(c) to any patent or application
that ever contained such a claim. See id. § 3(n)(1), 125 Stat.
at 293.
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PEDERSEN v. UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC 5
Pedersen argues that this evidence is insufficient because
of differences between Funk’s “information sources” and
limitation 1.4’s “messengers.” Open. Br. 19.
We disagree. First, the Board cited Funk’s timing pro-
cessor (704), which “provides flexible, highly configurable
customer control over when and what should be delivered
to the customer” such that a “customer’s account infor-
mation may indicate that the information from certain da-
tabases should be delivered periodically (e.g., send a
weather report every six hours).” J.A. 33-34 (quoting Funk,
col. 10, ll.18-25) (emphasis added); see also J.A. 34 (quoting
Funk, col. 9, ll.31-33) (“[A] personal configuration file is
created containing the information resources that the end-
user would like e-mailed to his desktop.”). The Board also
quoted Dr. Houh’s opinion that Funk allows a user to “spec-
ify preferences for how types of messages from certain
sources [are] received.” J.A. 34 (quoting J.A. 798-800 (Dr.
Houh’s Declaration ¶ 121), which cites Funk, col. 10, ll. 22-
25; col. 9, ll. 31-36; col. 10, ll.34-46).
Second, the Board relied on Funk’s disclosures relating
to third parties, adopting Unified Patents’ arguments and
evidence to the effect that Funk’s inbound e-mail processor
212 allows communication between senders and recipients
via a central system as shown in Funk’s Figures 1 and 2
and the ’920 patent’s Figure 4, indicating such information
sources are indeed “senders.” Id. at 34-35 (citing Funk, col.
8, ll. 30-36; col. 9, ll. 4-6). The Board specifically quoted
Funk’s language that messages “can come from several
sources, including third parties” (J.A. 34 (quoting Funk col.
7, ll.6-8)) and Dr. Houh’s opinion that “[t]he ‘parties’ of
Funk are senders because they transmit messages to a sys-
tem that in turn transmits the messages to a system that
in turn transmits the messages to recipients including in-
formation received from the parties.” J.A. 34-35 (citing J.A.
1160, ¶ 7 (Dr. Houh’s Supplemental Declaration)).
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PEDERSEN v. UNIFIED PATENTS, LLC 6
As a specific example of such a “third-party sender,”
the Board referred to Funk’s Figure 3, which depicts mes-
sage field 310 as containing the message: “JOHN, PLEASE
CALL ME. -DAVE S.” J.A. 35. The Board found this exam-
ple to “directly contradict[] Patent Owner’s argument that
the prior art lacks a disclosure of ‘identification of specific
recipients by specific messengers’” Id. (quoting J.A. 421-22
(Patent Owner’s Sur-Reply)). The Board further rejected
Pedersen’s argument that Funk lacks “parameters set by
recipients identifying specific messages” (Id. quoting J.A.
422) on the grounds that “Funk allows its customers to
specify that a particular customer wants to hear from a
particular information source at a particular interval.” Id.
(citing Funk, col. 10, ll. 18-25).
Though Pedersen presents alternate interpretations of
Funk here on appeal, including those based in usages of
“messenger” outside of the context of the ’920 patent (see,
e.g., Open. Br. 22-23), “a reasonable mind might accept” the
Board’s evidence “as adequate to support” its obviousness
conclusion.” Airbus S.A.S., 941 F.3d at 1381; Dickinson,
527 U.S. at 162. Accordingly, the Board’s obviousness con-
clusion is supported by substantial evidence.
AFFIRMED
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