Takeaway: Lynk Labs is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a Federal Circuit ruling that lets patent applications count as prior art from their filing date, warning the decision misreads the law and could inject major uncertainty into patent challenges.

Lynk Labs has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in after the Federal Circuit ruled that a patent application can be used as prior art from the date it was filed, not the date it was published. The dispute arose when Samsung challenged Lynk’s LED patent, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said the claims were invalid based on an older application filed in 2003 but published after Lynk’s priority date in 2004. The Federal Circuit backed that view, but Lynk argues the law only allows patents and published applications to be used in inter partes reviews, not unpublished filings. In its petition, Lynk says the ruling twists Congress’ intent, gives the patent office too much power, and creates confusion that could affect high-stakes patent cases across industries.