Federal Circuit’s Applications in Internet Time Decision Applied
By Matt Johnson - Throughout the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) history, patent owners have tried to leverage a petitioner’s alleged failure to name all real parties-in-interest (“RPIs”) as a way to achieve denial of an inter partes review (“IPR”) petition...
PTAB Reconsiders Unappealable § 315(b) Issue On Remand
By Matt Johnson - Current PTAB-relevant case law dictates: 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) “unambiguously precludes the Director from instituting an IPR if the petition seeking institution is filed more than one year after the petitioner, real party in interest, or privy of the...
PTAB Presents Precedential Opinion Recommendation Portal
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has added an online form to the USPTO website that allows any member of the public to nominate any PTAB decision for precedential or informative designation. Those nominating a decision must provide a case number, case name,...
On-Again, Off-Again Inventorship
By Nate Andrews and John Evans - Deciding who invented patents can be “one of muddiest concepts in the muddy metaphysics of the patent law.” Mueller Brass Co. v. Reading Industries, Inc., 352 F. Supp. 1357, 1372 (E.D. Pa. 1972). But identifying who contributed what,...
PTAB Decision Conflicts With District Court’s
By Mike Lavine and Matt Johnson - The PTAB and District Courts do not always see eye to eye when it comes to prior art. On August 21, 2020, the Board issued a trio of final written decisions refusing to invalidate the claims of three patents, two of which have claims...