En Banc Federal Circuit To Decide What To Decide In Inter Partes Review Appeals

Welcome, dear readers, to 2017. While we left 2016 with the potentially explosive news that the Supreme Court may be poised to eliminate the forum shopping that feeds patent troll litigation, we begin the new year with a Federal Circuit decision to review a small problem with the review of decisions by the Patent Office...

Supreme Court Affirms Patent Office Procedures For Inter Partes Review

Although the political winds in the Senate continue to blow against the confirmation of a ninth justice, the oddities of an eight–person Supreme Court have not prevented the court from deciding patent cases in the past week. Today brings the opinion of the Court in Cuozzo Speed Technologies v. Lee, in which the high court...

East Texas Court Orders Stay Pending Inter Partes Review

Sometimes, the straightforward application of the law has the power to surprise. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a process in place, called inter partes review, through which accused infringers can challenge the validity of patents asserted against them in litigation. Inter partes review is an adversary proceeding with a binding effect on...

It’s PTAB Week At The Federal Circuit

In a pair of decisions issued this week, the Federal Circuit has opined on the scope and limits of two kinds of administrative challenges to the validity of issued patents that can be filed with the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB), the administrative tribunal set up to decide such issues. Although the devil may...