Barnes & Thornburg Secures Key Early-Stage USPTO Ruling in Ex Parte Reexamination
Barnes & Thornburg secured a significant early-stage victory for firm client Unified Patents.
On Aug. 10, 2026, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted Unified’s request for an ex parte reexamination (EPR) concerning U.S. Patent No. 8,145,721, by NovaCloud Licensing, a Palo Alto-based company.
The ‘721 patent relates to a method of downloading a multimedia file from a server to a user device using bandwidth-limited connections. In its ruling, the USPTO found substantial new questions of patentability on all challenged claims of the patent.
NovaCloud, formed in 2024, filed its first patent infringement lawsuit in May 2025 against a tech giant in Delaware District Court. It has also sued other major tech and telecom companies in Western and Eastern Districts of Texas; and has asserted the ‘721 patent against them in other district court proceedings.
Unified is an international membership organization that seeks to improve patent quality and deter unsubstantiated or invalid patent assertions in defined technology sectors through its activities. With more than 350 members, Unified focuses on challenging assertions made by standard essential patent (SEP) holders or non-practicing entities (NPEs).
The Barnes & Thornburg team, led by partners Steven Shipe and Joshua Larsen, includes Rocky Scaletta and Kyle Dolan