A few years ago, a company called MacroSolve stopped creating products and started creating patent litigation. Its tool was a patent that claimed to cover mobile questionnaires. But after several of their targets decided to fight back, filing an ex parte reexamination request that wound up cancelling all of the claims of its patent, MacroSolve…
Tag Archive for ipr
RALIA Would Take Us Back To The Patent Law Stone Age
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
At the end of June, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced the “Restoring America’s Leadership in Innovation Act of 2018,” H.R. 6264 (RALIA). RALIA, rather than restoring American innovation, aims to overturn the advances in American patent law that help protect innovation. Last week, I addressed Rep. Rohrabacher’s ‘Inventor Protection Act’ (IPA) [1][2], and I’ve previously…
Federal Circuit Holds Tribal Sovereign Immunity Does Not Apply In IPR
by Josh Landau • • 0 Comments
Today, in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, the Federal Circuit held that tribal sovereign immunity does not provide a right of immunity in inter partes reviews (IPR). In an opinion by Judge Moore, writing for herself and Judges Dyk and Reyna, the Federal Circuit focused on the PTO Director’s ability to decide whether…
CAFC Determines No Requirement To Reopen Non-Instituted Claims Post-SAS
by Josh Landau •
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…
Sovereign Immunity, Upper Skagit, and Patents
by Josh Landau •
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 •
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 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…
Starting Off 2018 With More Sovereign Immunity
by Josh Landau •
2018 started off with a sovereign immunity bang, with the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe filing a motion that implicitly suggests that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) would only rule against them due to financial self-interest and political pressure. (For more background on the Allergan/Saint Regis Mohawk IPRs, you can read my earlier posts…
SCOTUS Taking Case On Partial Institution Of IPRs
by Josh Landau •
One of the biggest changes coming out of the 2011 America Invents Act (AIA) was the creation of the inter partes review (IPR) procedure, which allows people to challenge the validity of patents after they’ve issued. Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether an IPR can be “instituted” on only some of the…