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Richard Torczon
Senior Counsel
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Richard Torczon is Senior Counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, in the patent litigation practice. Before joining the firm, Rick was an Administrative Patent Judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for nearly two decades, where he worked on patent interferences and appeals and authored many of the PTAB’s rules. He was also an associate solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor, where he represented the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on patent and trademark matters, particularly before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Rick started in government as an Honors Attorney at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Before joining the government, he worked at the Adachi International Patent Law firm in Nagoya, Japan. Rick has written and spoken extensively on legal ethics, effective arguments, and PTAB-related topics.
Recent Articles by Richard Torczon
It Matters: A Former Administrative Patent Judge’s Take on Arthrex
As most of us know by now, in Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., entered on Halloween 2019, a panel of the Federal Circuit held that the administrative patent judges (APJs) of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) were improperly appointed, and remanded the case for a new decision by a properly appointed panel. Almost immediately after, the court entered two orders dismissing motions for remand because the issue had not been timely raised. See Customedia Technologies, LLC v. Dish Network Corp., Nos. 18-2239 & 19-1001 (Fed. Cir., Nov. 1, 2019) (the motions were inferred from letters to the court). The Federal Circuit remanded a case in which the issue had been timely raised. Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Facebook, Inc., No. 18-2251 (Fed. Cir., Oct. 31, 2019). Predictions about the effect on pending cases overlook that the vast majority of PTAB final decisions come in appeals from the patent examining corps. Any of the hundreds of applicants dissatisfied with a recent PTAB appeal decision could appeal to the Federal Circuit and then promptly move for remand to a different panel. A reader could be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu: in In re DBC, the Federal Circuit similarly found that APJs had been improperly appointed, but the issue was quickly resolved and now is remembered as a minor footnote in patent case law. In re DBC, 545 F.3d 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2008). Arthrex holds the potential to be far more significant. Indeed, Arthrex may prove more trick than treat.
