While the Supreme Court continues to consider WesternGeco, that’s not the only oil services patent case to read up on.1 A little over a month ago, the Supreme Court’s SAS opinion determined that the PTAB can’t pick and choose which claims to consider in an inter partes review (IPR). Today, the Federal Circuit released its…
Tag Archive for inter partes review
Sovereign Immunity, Upper Skagit, and Patents
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court released their decision in Upper Skagit Indian Tribe v. Lundgren. The opinion effectively held that the simple fact of in rem jurisdiction does not always bar claims of tribal sovereign immunity. In rem jurisdiction is one argument that might bar the new practice of renting tribal sovereign immunity to…
A Little More Than Forty Percent: Outcomes At The PTAB, District Court, and the EPO
by Josh Landau • • 4 Comments
In the run-up to Oil States, a frequent criticism by opponents of patent reform was that the PTAB was “unfair” and that it invalidated patents at a rate far higher than the district courts would if they had the chance. Unfortunately this is contradicted by the actual facts, which is something we’ve seen before…
PTAB Will Continue To Double-Check Its Work—All Of It
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
Today, the Supreme Court issued two opinions in cases focused on the inter partes review (IPR) procedure. First, in Oil States v. Greene’s Energy Group, the Court upheld the constitutionality of IPR by a 7-2 vote. Second, in a more narrowly divided 5-4 decision in SAS v. Matal, the Court decided that the PTAB’s practice…
Iancu’s First Hearing Answers Questions, Leaves More Open
by Josh Landau • • 1 Comment
On Wednesday, April 18, new USPTO Director Andrei Iancu appeared for his first oversight hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Director was more open with the Committee compared to his confirmation process, leading to some interesting discussions. Algorithms Are Already Patentable A number of questions focused on the issue of patentable subject…
The Patent Examination Process Shouldn’t Be An Oversight
by Josh Landau • • 1 Comment
Director Iancu will be appearing for his first oversight hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, April 18. This follows on his recent speech at the Chamber of Commerce, at which he emphasized two areas of focus: Patent rights should be more predictable and the system should be more stable. When discussing the patent system, dialogue should be more…
Like A Horror Movie Villain, The STRONGER Patents Act Returns
by Josh Landau •
Since the STRONGER Patents Act was introduced last year, it’s basically been a dead topic. Maybe that’s because the bill would gut the extremely successful inter partes review procedure and overturn more than a decade of Supreme Court precedent, crippling the ability of small and medium enterprises to develop products without fear. It would even make…
“The Same Or Substantially The Same Prior Art Or Arguments”
by Josh Landau •
Director Andrei Iancu has been making the rounds since his confirmation. In a recent interview, he suggested that “[t]here is, for sure, a perception problem in the IP community with the PTAB” and that “when you have a perception problem you have a real problem in the sense that if the IP community loses faith…
Senate Introduces Bill To Prevent Abuse Of Sovereign Immunity
by Josh Landau •
Yesterday Senators Cotton, McCaskill, Toomey, Ernst, and Perdue introduced the Preserving Access to Cost Effective Drugs (PACED) Act, a bill which would help prevent sovereign immunity from being abused to prevent invalid patents from being struck down by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. As Patent Progress has previously described, sovereign immunity has been abused…
PTAB Rejects Allergan’s Tribal Sovereign Immunity Claim
by Josh Landau •
On Friday, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a ruling rejecting Allergan’s sovereign immunity claims. As Patent Progress has previously described [1][2][3], Allergan sold their patents to a Native American tribe, licensed them back, and required the tribe to claim sovereign immunity against inter partes reviews. But, as also previously described here, there…