The Federal Circuit Criticizes A PTAB Partial Institution
By Dave Maiorana The PTAB’s practice of partially instituting IPRs has been in the news lately, with Jones Day recently arguing against that practice at the Supreme Court on behalf of the SAS Institute (“SAS”). On December 5, 2017, the week after the Supreme Court...
Inherent Obviousness: Available IPR Rationale With a High Standard
By Jeff Giering, Ph.D. and Cary Miller, Ph.D. On November 28, 2017, the PTAB issued a final written decision upholding the patentability of U.S. Patent No. 6,667,061 (IPR2016-01096). The ’061 patent is owned by Alkermes Pharma Ireland, Ltd. and Alkermes Controlled...
Supreme Court Reviews Constitutionality of PTAB Proceedings
By Matt Johnson On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of PTAB post-grant trials in Oil States Energy Servs., LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, No. 16-712 (U.S.). The question posed to the Court is “Whether inter partes...
SAS Institute Argues Before Supreme Court Against PTAB’s Partial-Decision Practice
By Greg Castanias, John Marlott, and Dave Cochran In a closely followed case before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of SAS Institute Inc., a cross-office, cross-practice Jones Day team has challenged the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) practice to elect to...
PTAB Publishes Aqua Products Guidance Regarding Motions to Amend
By Matt Johnson On November 21st, the PTAB issued guidance for motions to amend in post-grant trials based on the Federal Circuit’s en banc decision in Aqua Products, Inc. v. Matal, 872 F.3d 1290 (Fed. Cir. 2017). In line with that decision, the PTAB will not place...