The parties and the patent

The proceeding is SAP America, Inc. v. Celonis SE, IPR2027-00004. The petition names SAP America, Inc. and SAP SE as real parties in interest, and it also lists SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG, SAP Beteiligungs GmbH, and SAP Labs, LLC without conceding they are real parties in interest. U.S. Patent 11,256,708 is titled Method of Creating Process Protocols.

What the claims cover

Independent claim 1 covers a computer-implemented method of creating a process protocol in a local computer system that has a processor and a storage device. The process protocol encodes object-related activities and is created from raw data stored in data tables, in part in a first external computer system and in part in a second, where the data is created as processes run in those systems. The method imports the data tables into the local system, reconstructs the relationships between them, selects a first table whose records represent the objects and second tables whose records represent process steps, and determines activities for the objects. It then creates and executes a transformation that extracts the data from the tables in the external systems, stores it as the process protocol, and provides the protocol to a process mining system for analysis and reconstruction of the processes carried out in the two external systems. Claims 2 to 14 depend, directly or indirectly, from claim 1.

The grounds and the prior art

The single ground is obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 against claims 1 to 14, over three references: U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0212937 (Exhibit 1004); Nooijen, a paper titled Automatic Discovery of Data-Centric and Artifact-Centric Processes, published in 2013 in the BPM 2012 International Workshops proceedings (Exhibit 1005); and Harrison, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0096000 (Exhibit 1006).

Related matters

The petition lists Celonis SE v. SAP SE, No. 2:25-cv-01037 (E.D. Tex.), filed October 10, 2025, as related litigation in which the '708 patent has been asserted. The district court docket lists Celonis SE and Celonis, Inc. as plaintiffs and SAP America, Inc. and SAP SE as defendants. The case is assigned to District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III, and the April 1, 2026 docket control order sets jury selection for October 18, 2027.

What to watch next

Under 37 CFR 42.107(b), Celonis may file a preliminary response within three months of the notice according the petition a filing date. Under the USPTO's interim Director discretionary process, any discretionary denial brief from Celonis is due within two months of that notice. Watch for the notice, those filings, and the institution decision.