Slack Technologies, LLC et al. vs. Wrinkl, Inc.

Explore the PTAB proceeding IPR2024-01490 filed by Slack Technologies, LLC et al. on 2024-09-26. This includes filing dates, application numbers, tech centers, patent numbers, and current case status.

Proceeding Overview

Proceeding Number

IPR2024-01490

Filing Date

2024-09-26

Accorded Filing Date

2024-09-26

Institution Decision Date

2025-04-21

Last Modified Date

2025-12-23

Proceeding Type

IPR

Termination Date

2025-11-20

Trial Status

Terminated

Parties & Counsel

Petitioner

Slack Technologies, LLC et al.

Represented By

Perez, Robert

Patent Owner / Respondent

Wrinkl, Inc.

Represented By

Katz, Stevenet al

Tribunal & Venue

Tribunal

Patent Trial and Appeal Board (USPTO)

Technology Center

TC 2400 - Computer Networks, Multiplex & Cybersecurity

Patent Information

1 Patent Involved

Respondent Application Number 18535572

Respondent Patent Number 11973731

External Links

Espacenet

Google Patents

Respondent Inventor Marc A. Cohen et al

Respondent Tech Center TC 2400 - Computer Networks, Multiplex & Cybersecurity

Address and Attorney/Agent Information

202 Registered Practitioners

Power of Attorney & Correspondence

Firm / Entity Name FISH & RICHARDSON P.C. (TC)

Customer Number 26191

Address PO BOX 1022, MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 55440-1022, UNITED STATES

Attorney / Agent Information

Reg #	Name	Phone
25351	S Ludwig	212-641-2320
30499	Robert Sullivan Jr	212-765-5070
31644	P Musselman Jr	214-292-4030
32983	J Fasse	617-542-5070
34609	David Goren	650-839-5070
34819	Janis Fraser	617-542-5070
35283	Anita Meiklejohn	617-542-5070
35322	John Phillips	858-678-5070
36950	Hans Troesch	650-839-5070
37141	J Gray	214-747-5070
37640	John Hayden	202-783-5070
38524	Phyllis Kristal	202-626-6424
39522	Terry Stalford	214-292-4088
40978	Sean Daley	617-542-5070
41265	Walter Renner	202-626-6447
42276	James Babineau	512-472-5070
42497	John Dragseth	612-335-5070
42596	Kirk Gottlieb	650-839-5070
43162	Richard Sterba	202-783-5070
43350	Charles Schulman	617-230-6012
43706	Steven Katz	617-542-5070
43807	Lawrence Kolodney	617-542-5070
43881	Timothy Riffe	202-783-5070
44109	James Finn Iii	612-335-5070
44282	M. Parsons	612-337-2577
45449	Gwilym Attwell	302-778-8458
45485	John Conroy	490-897-10410250
45910	Paul Franz	404-724-2763
46310	Joshua Griswold	214-292-4034
46656	Sean Dean	617-542-5070
46731	Christine Goddard	617-542-5070
47362	David Hardy	713-228-2555
47443	John Brennan	212-765-5070
47532	Andrea Dorigo	858-678-4794
47671	William Hunter	858-678-4707
47733	John Lane	713-654-5307
48029	Scott Wendorf	214-733-0859
48950	Jeffrey Barclay	617-542-5070
50325	David Jordan	202-626-6365
50429	Janice Deyoung	617-956-5985
50620	Thomas Rozylowicz	202-626-6395
50636	Ryan Mccarthy	512-226-8169
50680	John Kendall	617-521-7032
53103	Elizabeth Kaytor	34-985-26-92-75
53452	Neal Persky	512-853-8800
54101	Heather Flanagan	512-472-5070
54112	Todd Garcia	617-542-5070
54149	Michael Hamlin	617-542-5070
54867	John Goetz	212-641-2277
55016	Christopher Bowley	650-839-5001
56842	Marc Wefers	617-542-5070
57661	Rex Huang	617-542-5070
57867	Michael Hawkins	612-337-2569
58674	Cameron Luitjens	612-766-2082
58680	Jeremy Monaldo	202-626-7722
59567	Nicholas Jepsen	202-626-6367
60816	Patrick King	703-720-7870
61225	Michael Portnov	650-839-5070
61359	Tiffany Reiter	617-897-2037
61757	Yao Wang	202-626-6442
62371	Tracy Hitt	404-724-2775
62396	Joseph Valentino	212-765-5070
62469	Jamilla Holomon	713-654-5320
62880	John-Paul Fryckman	858-678-4396
63173	Matthew Wernli	512-226-8131
63471	Andrew Patrick	202-783-5070
63893	Patrick Bisenius	612-337-2590
63947	Stuart Nelson	612-337-2538
64231	Michael Shepherd	650--83-9-5165
64297	Jennifer Huang	612-335-5070
64399	Kim Leung	(828) 901-5206
64455	Garett Padilla	612-638-5739
64612	Christina Mcdonough	617-542-5070
64768	Rishi Gupta	214-292-4056
64816	Robert Gerhart	612-766-2061
64869	Jonathan Solomon	214-760-6148
65068	Kenneth Darby Jr.	512-226-8126
65161	David Holt	202-626-7783
65758	Andrew Dommer	612-337-2522
65853	Joseph Koipally	617-542-5070
65973	Matthew Mattson	214-747-5070
66469	Christopher Wright	404-724-2788
67317	Crystal Culhane	858-678-5635
67552	Paul Western	612-337-2567
68116	Kenneth Hoover	512-226-8117
68222	Gabriel Gonzalez	512-226-8101
68717	Sushil Iyer	202-626-7778
68848	Joel Couenhoven	202-783-5070
68892	Margaret Willis	612-278-4506
69205	Patrick Darno	202-626-7726
69264	Craig Deutsch	612-278-4514
69591	Kathryn Grey	612-638-5720
70014	Hyun Jin In	202-626-7765
70074	Jun Li	972-207-0623
70439	Usman Khan	202-626-6383
70538	Yunbo Guo	512-226-8108
70596	Erin Knight	512-226-8118
70838	Annie King	617-368-2121
71058	Won Yoon	202-626-6431
71612	Kary Yergler	214-292-4036
71762	Matthew Knabel	202-835-7537
71777	Karan Jhurani	404-724-2807
71928	Craig Boyle	212-641-2265
71977	Grace Kim	612-766-7896
72227	Jacqueline Tio	404-892-5005
72483	Ayan Roy-Chowdhury	202-626-6428
72505	Gretchen Devries	212-641-2269
72726	Giordana Mahn	617-521-7845
72963	Congzhou Zhou	214-292-4047
72970	Joel Henry	317-237-8259
73048	Iulia Graf	512-226-8121
73259	Richard Wong	212-641-2285
73407	Scott Dyar	312-913-3332
73472	Meghana Gupta	617-542-5070
73609	William Spencer Iii	212-641-2270
73949	Alyaman Amer	214-292-4043
74063	Christopher Reilly	617-933-4427
74071	Timothy Babatz	612-708-5996
74169	Leanne Flatter	512-226-8130
74295	Alex Yu	650-839-5007
74320	Nicholas Stephens	612-766-2018
74466	Ryan Chowdhury	202-638-6554
74627	Evan Davey	302-778-8457
74643	Peter Poulin	617-956-5901
74999	Peng Lin	617-368-2124
75037	Katie Hyma	613-682-1397
75127	Xu Li	302-778-8470
75476	Kiersten Batzli	612-766-2015
75496	Dariela Almeda	512-226-8115
75570	Chuanming Wei	814-321-5802
75834	Karina Calliste	202-629-6363
76005	Parvin Ghane	512-226-8143
76048	Yong Peng	214-760-6132
76108	Tyler Train	858-678-4326
76611	Minseung Ahn	202-626-7708
76667	Vincent Beacom	763-213-3914
76691	Molly Kelley	612-335-5070
76703	Craig Carlson	202-638-6509
76843	Kim Bui	212-641-2318
76874	Jasmine De Cock	212-641-2216
76988	Kimberly Reynolds	617-526-9671
77081	Cameron Ubel	612-766-2057
77139	Caleb Bates	650-839-5070
77256	Justin Sears	212-641-2296
77259	Liujing Xing	617-542-5070
77261	Sangki Park	612-336-4669
77277	Sohee Yoon	202-626-7703
77367	Juan Perez Jr.	512-226-8158
77647	Alysha Dicke	612-638-5719
77763	Matthew Chun	617-521-7021
77914	Ashley Biernesser	617-521-7033
77958	Hanchao Zhao	617-368-2182
78020	Erica Davis	503-970-8608
78165	Samuel Orke	414-277-5640
78294	Jiao Wang	858-678-4390
78335	Patrick Rothstein	312-423-3462
78380	Baile Xie	214-760-6139
78504	Jessica Li	650-839-5061
78651	Adam Payne	770-289-9550
78815	Timothy Mcfadden	617-542-5070
78933	Daniel Wheaton	207-408-9369
78945	Yu Ding	214-760-6128
79014	Allison Dietrich	202-626-6423
79041	Haoliang Chen	214-292-4048
79323	Erin Higgins	612-766-2047
79350	Jong Wan Suh	202-626-7785
79353	Weisheng Xie	214-463-6413
79432	Indranil Sarkar	202-638-6504
79512	Sara Brandt	049-897-10410296
79866	Alexander Berg	212-641-2232
79991	Benjamin Halkowski	202-220-6849
800018	Daniel Jang	212-641-2337
800058	Jesse Gordon	617-992-5179
800102	Annabella En Ci Chong	312-730-3249
80456	Michael Jandron	617-368-2187
80507	Allen Eastlund	612-638-5752
80549	Kenneth Langley	512-226-8146
80735	Jillian Shapiro	212-765-5070
80797	Steven Petkovsek	216-538-3967
80833	Wilhelm Bolt	617-521-7829
80939	Yu Noda	972-732-1001
81011	Allison Ramsey	214-747-5070
81012	Pallavi Banerjee	617-542-5070
81178	Alexander Scogin	512-472-5070
81218	Joseph Bauer	161-237-15236
81505	John Treilhard	404-901-2953
81555	John Bowler	303-473-2700
81610	Patric Han	214-292-4049
81764	Therese Paoletta	512-472-5070
81911	Fernanda Lago Arroyo	954-439-2352
82012	Shihong Li	650-839-5089
82195	Yongan Yuan	612-638-5717
82202	Jonathan Driesslein	202-626-6394
82218	Ryan Fitzpatrick	512-226-8102
82314	Katie Bitting	617-368-2106
82360	Girish Ratanpal	713-589-9924
82571	Cassie Yin	650-839-5120
82872	Diana Kafkes	617-521-7841
83105	Sarah Newbury	202-783-5070
L0889	Jae Woo Choi	202-626-6435
L1264	John Treilhard	202-626-6439
L1372	Jia Zhu	650-839-5070

Proceeding Documents

Termination Decision: Post-DI dismissal TERMINATE

2025-11-20 FILING PARTY: BOARD

Download

Patent Owner's Notice of Deposition of Dr. Andrew Cockburn NOTICE

2025-11-18 FILING PARTY: PATENT OWNER

Download

1027

Jakob Nielsen, Usability Engineering, ch. 5 (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc. 1994), available at https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2821575 Exhibit

2025-11-05 FILING PARTY: PETITIONER

Download

1026

Ben Shneiderman, The Eyes Have It: A Task by Data Type Taxonomy for Information Visualizations (Dep’t of Computer Sci., Human-Computer Interaction Lab & Inst. for Sys. Rsch., Univ. of Md., College Park, 1996), available at https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/VL.1996.545307 Exhibit

2025-11-05 FILING PARTY: PETITIONER

Download

1023

mIRC User Guide (Sept. 9, 2016), available at https://web.archive.org/web/20160909085546/ https://www.mirc.com/help/mirc.pdf#expand Exhibit

2025-11-05 FILING PARTY: PETITIONER

Download

Slack Technologies, LLC et al. vs. Wrinkl, Inc.

Proceeding Overview

Parties & Counsel

Petitioner

Slack Technologies, LLC et al.

Represented By

Patent Owner / Respondent

Wrinkl, Inc.

Represented By

Tribunal & Venue

Patent Information

Address and Attorney/Agent Information

Power of Attorney & Correspondence

Attorney / Agent Information

Proceeding Documents

Termination Decision: Post-DI dismissal TERMINATE

Patent Owner's Notice of Deposition of Dr. Andrew Cockburn NOTICE

Jakob Nielsen, Usability Engineering, ch. 5 (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc. 1994), available at https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2821575 Exhibit

Ben Shneiderman, The Eyes Have It: A Task by Data Type Taxonomy for Information Visualizations (Dep’t of Computer Sci., Human-Computer Interaction Lab & Inst. for Sys. Rsch., Univ. of Md., College Park, 1996), available at https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/VL.1996.545307 Exhibit

mIRC User Guide (Sept. 9, 2016), available at https://web.archive.org/web/20160909085546/ https://www.mirc.com/help/mirc.pdf#expand Exhibit

Transcript of Deposition of Kevin C. Almeroth, October 28, 2025 Exhibit

Petitioners' Updated Exhibit List OTHER

Reply Declaration of Andrew Cockburn For Inter Partes Review of U.S. Patent No. 11,973,731 Exhibit

John E. Grayson, Python and Tkinter Programming 16, 154–55, 365–66 (2000). Exhibit

Antony Fountain, Jeremy Huxtable, Paula Ferguson & Dan Heller, Motif Programming Manual, Open Source Edition, Vol. 6A (Dec. 2001), available at https://www.ist.co.uk/motif/download/6A/6A_book.pdf Exhibit

New Ways to Interact with Your Tablet PC (Aug. 25, 2004), available at https://web.archive.org/web/20051221130655/ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/ evaluation/overviews/pcinteract.mspx Exhibit

Petitioners' Reply to Patent Owner Response for Inter Partes Review of U.S. Patent No. 11,973,731 REPLYTOOPP

Joint Stipulation to Modify Due Dates 2-3 OTHER

Petitioners’ Amended Notice of Deposition of Kevin C. Almeroth, Ph.D. Pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 42.53 NOTICE

Related Matters Update Exhibit

Petitioner’s Notice of Deposition of Kevin C. Almeroth, Ph.D. Pursuant to 37 C.F.R § 42.53 NOTICE

Patent Owners Updated Mandatory Notices NOTICE

General Order: Related Matters Updates ORDER

Petitioners’ Objections Pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 42.64(b)(1) OTHER

Expert Declaration of Kevin C. Almeroth, Ph.D. Exhibit

EXHIBIT A, Initial Claim Chart Relating the Accused Product to the Asserted Claims of U.S. Patent No. 11,973,731 Exhibit

Wrinkl Wins MediaPost’s 2018 Appy Award, May 16, 2018 Exhibit

XChat: Channel List (nexlab.azzurra.org) Exhibit

CV of Kevin C. Almeroth, Ph.D. Exhibit

U.S. Patent No. 11,539,649 Exhibit

TechCrunch Article “Slack launches threaded messaging to take conversations off to the side” Exhibit

Davey Alba, Slack's New Threaded Messages Tame Your Meandering Chats, WIRED, January 18, 2017 Exhibit

Hubert Florin, Threads in Slack A: Long Design Journey (Part 1 of 2), Slack Design Exhibit

Patent Owner Response RESPONSE

Response to Non-Final Office Action dated March 9, 2020, filed June 8, 2020 in US Patent Application No. 16/399,349 Exhibit

Joint Stipulation to Modify Due Dates 1-3 NOTICE

Panel Change Order ORDER

Patent Owner's Reply In Support of Motion to Terminate OTHER

Petitioner’s Opposition to Patent Owner’s Motion to Terminate OPPOSITION

Order Conduct of the Proceeding ORDER

Patent Owner's Motion to Terminate MOTION

Declaration of Brock S. Weber in Support of Petitioners’ Unopposed Motion for Admission Pro Hac Vice of Brock S. Weber Exhibit

Unopposed Motion for Brock S. Weber to Appear Pro Hac Vice OTHER

Unopposed Motion for Christopher Kao to Appear Pro Hac Vice OTHER

Declaration of Christopher Kao in Support of Petitioners’ Unopposed Motion for Admission Pro Hac Vice of Christopher Kao Exhibit

Institution Decision: DECISION Granting Institution of Inter Partes Review 35 U.S.C. § 314 DECISION

Order: SCHEDULING ORDER ORDER

Notice : Mandatory Notice NOTICE

Notice : Power of Attorney NOTICE

NOTICE OF FILING DATE ACCORDED TO PETITION AND TIME FOR FILING PATENT OWNER PRELIMINARY RESPONSE NOTICE

U.S. Patent No. 6,630,944 (“Kakuta”) Exhibit

U.S. Patent No. 11,973,731 to Cohen Exhibit

John E. Grayson, Python and Tkinter Programming, (2000) Exhibit

Scheduling Order in Related Action Exhibit

Return of Service in Related Action Exhibit

Provisional Application No. 62/253,229 Exhibit

Petitioners’ Reasons for Parallel Petitions and Petition Ranking Exhibit

Petitioners' Power of Attorney NOTICE

Apple, Human Interface Guidelines: The Apple Desktop Interface (1987) Exhibit

Curriculum Vitae of Andrew Cockburn Exhibit

What Americans Like About Being Online Exhibit

File History for Application No. 18/535,572 (Part 2 of 2) Exhibit

’731 Patent Claim Elements Exhibit

File History for Application No. 18/535,572 (Part 1 of 2) Exhibit

Making Contact: Getting the Group Communicating with Groupware Exhibit

U.S. Patent No. 7,426,540 (“Matsumoto”) Exhibit

Complaint in Related Action Exhibit

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0069969 (“Chang”) Exhibit

Petition for Inter Partes Review of U.S. Patent No. 11,973,731 PETITION

Empirical Evidence of Information Overload Constraining Chat Channel Comm. Exhibit