Spireon Defeats Challenge to its U.S. Patent for Vehicle Inventory Management Technology

Litigation against accused infringer is now expected to continue in federal district court

Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, unveiled that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejected a challenge to the validity of Spireon’s patent (U.S. Patent No. 10,089,598) brought by Procon Analytics, LLC. The Board, part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, denied institution of a post-grant review challenging the validity of the ‘598 patent. It found the petition for review failed to demonstrate that any of the patent claims of the ‘598 patent are unpatentable. In so holding, the Board found Procon Analytics’s arguments to the contrary, including testimony by its purported expert, as “unsupported by factual evidence.”

“As a technology leader, our intellectual property is critically important to protect, and so we are pleased with this victory,” said Kevin Weiss, Spireon CEO. “We asserted the ‘598 patent because we believe Procon Analytics is infringing, and we now look forward to our opportunity to prove that to a jury.”

The federal district court case between the parties is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (Case No. 3:19-cv-00201-PLR-HBG). In this case, Spireon alleges Procon Analytics’ Connected Dealer Services infringes the ‘598 Patent, and it has requested that the court permanently enjoin Procon Analytics from continuing to do so. While currently stayed, this case is expected to soon resume given Spireon’s win in the post-grant review.

The ‘598 patent is directed to Spireon’s technology approach to managing an automotive dealership’s vehicle inventory by pairing a tracking device to a vehicle. The ‘598 Patent covers the technology used in Kahu, Spireon’s connected car solution built for dealers.

Kahu’s patented technology allows franchise auto dealers to improve operational efficiency, sales effectiveness, service retention and customer satisfaction scores. By connecting vehicles to Spireon’s award-winning NSpire platform, Kahu gives dealers and dealer groups the visibility they need to effectively manage lots, service customers and improve the bottom line.

Specific use cases supported by the patented technology include:

• Providing location and battery health information for every vehicle across one or more dealerships, including monitoring and reporting of vehicles with low battery charge
• The ability to search and find vehicles using a partial vehicle identification number (VIN), across multiple dealer inventories
• Managing low power behavior of a device
• Device tamper detection and disconnected battery alerts
• Managing lifecycle and inventory of tracking devices
• Integration with a Dealer Management System (DMS) to transfer a device from a dealer to a consumer account

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