The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has designated as precedential a decision holding that the Board may consider § 101 when evaluating the patentability of a patent owner’s proposed substitute claims in a motion to amend. The decision clarifies the impact of the Federal Circuit’s Aqua Products decision on the issue of subject matter eligibility of substitute claims. Continue reading “PTAB Can Consider § 101 When Reviewing Amended Claims”
Forum Selection Clause in Patent License Found to Preclude Challenging Patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
On March 23, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered a patent licensee to withdraw petitions to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) seeking to invalidate a licensor’s patents. The Court held that the forum selection clause of the patent license between the parties – which stipulated that “the parties agree…that disputes shall be litigated before the courts in San Francisco County or Orange County, California” – extinguished the patent licensee’s right to bring challenges against the licensed patents in the PTAB located in Alexandria, Virginia. Continue reading “Forum Selection Clause in Patent License Found to Preclude Challenging Patents at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board”
Federal Circuit May Be Poised to Eliminate Issue Joinder
A Federal Circuit panel may toss so-called “issue joinder” from inter partes review proceedings after hearing oral arguments last month in Nidec Motor Corporation v. Zhongshan Broad Ocean Company. Issue joinder allows the same party to raise new issues in separate proceedings and then join them. Continue reading “Federal Circuit May Be Poised to Eliminate Issue Joinder”
PTAB Panel Estops Petitioner Under 315(e)(1)
A panel of judges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) recently estopped a Petitioner from joining a petition for inter partes review under 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(1). The panel’s order denying institution and joinder is notable for its interpretation of the Federal Circuit’s decision in Shaw Industries Group v. Automated Creel Systems, Inc. 817 F.3d 1293 (Fed. Cir. 2016). The panel’s interpretation is markedly different from an earlier application of that case by Judge Robinson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
Continue reading “PTAB Panel Estops Petitioner Under 315(e)(1)”
Federal Circuit to Review PTAB’s Amendment Practice
Earlier this month the Federal Circuit granted en banc review of the PTAB’s process for reviewing Motions to Amend Claims in AIA proceedings. In the case In re Aqua Products, the patent owner argues that it met the statutory requirements for making a claim amendment but the PTAB failed to enter the amendment based on a erroneous interpretation of the statute which results in additional, onerous requirements being levied on a patent owner. Continue reading “Federal Circuit to Review PTAB’s Amendment Practice”
Federal Circuit Issues Second-Ever IPR Reversal, But Petitioner Still Wins
Earlier this month the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in an inter partes review decision for just the second time ever. Belden Inc. v. Berk-Tek LLC, Case No. 2014-1575 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 5, 2015). The court found that the PTAB did not invalidate enough claims of the challenged patent, resulting in yet another win for an IPR petitioner at the appellate level. Continue reading “Federal Circuit Issues Second-Ever IPR Reversal, But Petitioner Still Wins”