Posts Tagged: "inter partes review"

The U.S. Solicitor General recommended Tuesday that the United States Supreme Court deny Apple, Inc.’s petition asking the Court to clarify the proper application of estoppel in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. The case stems from a February, 2022, decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in which the court issued a mixed precedential decision that affirmed, vacated, and remanded in part a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. That ruling related to a patent infringement suit filed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) against Broadcom Limited, Broadcom Corporation, and Avago Technologies (collectively “Broadcom) and Apple Inc. concerning Caltech’s U.S. Patent 7,116,710 (‘710 patent), U.S. Patent 7,421,032 (‘032 patent), and U.S. Patent 7,916,781 (‘781 patent).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled in a precedential decision today that Medtronic, Inc. failed to show the challenged claims of five patents covering catheter technology unpatentable. The CAFC specifically upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s) finding that the primary prior art reference cited by Medtronic did not qualify as prior art under pre-America Invents Act (AIA) first-to-invent provisions. Judge Dyk dissented, arguing that the prior art reference had been shown to qualify as prior art, and thus could support a determination of anticipation or obviousness.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) yesterday made public a Sanctions Order against a patent owner that resulted in the cancellation of all 183 claims of five patents challenged in separate inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. The PTAB order said that Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics “committed an egregious abuse of the PTAB process” by “selectively and improperly” withholding “material results that were inconsistent with its arguments and the patentability of both original and proposed substitute claims.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today published a request for comments (RFC) in the Federal Register seeking public input on the pilot program for motion to amend (MTA) practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The Office is considering whether to make the MTA pilot program permanent for patent validity trials under the America Invents Act (AIA) and seeks input on the PTAB’s authority to raise grounds sua sponte during the MTA process. The deadline for public comments in response to this RFC is currently set for July 24, 2023.

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) issued a decision on May 5 granting Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Administrative Patent Judge (APJ) Michael Fitzpatrick’s request for corrective action with respect to alleged retaliatory personnel actions against him by senior management officials at the Department of Commerce and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The 131-page decision said that Fitzpatrick filed the appeal to the MSPB in 2021, following punishment for “protected whistleblowing activity.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Kathi Vidal, Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge (APJ) Michael Tierney of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and Lead APJ Amber Hagy presented a webinar Tuesday on the Office’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on PTAB practices, walking attendees through some of the key proposals, and repeatedly reassuring stakeholders that the ANPRM does not contain any proposed rules. The widespread confusion about the ANPRM was highlighted during Vidal’s recent oversight hearing by the House IP Subcommittee.

Between the precedential Fintiv decision in March of 2020 and Director Vidal’s Guidance Memo regarding the application of Fintiv in June of 2022, the discretionary denial rates of inter partes review (IPR) institution decisions under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a) plummeted from 40-50% to 11-16%. Coupled with the order issued by the Chief Judge of the Western District of Texas in July of 2022 declaring that all new patent cases filed in the Waco Division will be randomly assigned among the 12 judges in the district, the substantial decline in denials based on Fintiv in 2022 was not surprising. Now, amid speculations that Fintiv denial rates will increase once again, the USPTO recently announced a set of proposed rules on discretionary denial practice in an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM).

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Kathi Vidal issued a sua sponte Director Review decision on Tuesday explaining that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s) reading of the inter partes review (IPR) statute was incorrect, and directing the Board to revisit a petition brought by Volvo Penta of the Americas, LLC and to analyze the Fintiv factors in view of a parallel district court proceeding.

Today’s hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet on Oversight of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) demonstrated some confusion on the part of Congress about the intent of USPTO Director Kathi Vidal’s recent Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on changes to Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) processes, and suggested the Subcommittee members believe she may be exceeding her authority.

It was another low patent-filing week at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), with just 12 new petitions (about half of last year’s average); district court filings were average with 47 new filings. Acacia subsidiary Atlas Global received more petitions on patents that are part of its broad assertion campaign; some Centripetal patents were instituted by a defendant in that going campaign; Intellectual Ventures appears to have settled the latest round of automotive litigation before Judge Albright, ending that case; and IP Edge continues to not file new cases and settle old ones, in the wake of the end of the year discovery battles. Zillow was instituted on patents IBM had asserted or threatened; and the Vidal administration is the latest recipient of yet another Gil Hyatt suit.

Given the various ways the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) can exercise discretion to deny institution of an inter partes review (IPR) petition (and the corresponding non?appealability of those decisions), ex parte reexamination is becoming an attractive option to challenge patent validity following a decision not to institute. Because a later filed ex parte reexamination is often viewed as a “second bite at the apple,” there were questions as to how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should treat these second attempts at invalidating a patent. For IPRs, the PTAB has used several bases for discretionary denial of a later-filed IPR, but those bases were not being applied to follow-on ex parte reexamination requests. However, in In re Vivint, the Federal Circuit held that the USPTO has the authority to discretionarily deny an ex parte reexamination request under 35 U.S.C. § 325(d), i.e., if “the same or substantially the same prior art or arguments previously were presented to the Office.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) indicating it is considering changes to America Invents Act (AIA) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Perhaps most notably, one of the proposals it is asking for input on has to do with creating rules that would authorize discretionary denial of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings “to ensure that certain for-profit, non-competitive entities do not use the IPR and PGR processes in ways that do not advance the mission and vision of the USPTO to promote innovation or the intent behind the AIA to improve patent quality and limit unnecessary and counterproductive litigation costs.”

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Kathi Vidal said in an Order filed yesterday in IPR2021-01229 between Patent Quality Assurance (PQA)/Intel and VLSI Technology that VLSI’s reference in its Rehearing Request to an “unsolicited, anonymous, and improper ex parte communication” about the relationship between PQA and Intel that Vidal had put under seal has put VLSI on thin ice and in danger of being sanctioned.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) today affirmed in a precedential decision the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s) finding that Moderna Therapeutics proved certain claims of Arbutus Biopharma Corporation’s mRNA delivery patent invalid as anticipated. U.S. Patent No. 9,404,127 is titled “Non-liposomal Systems for Nucleic Acid Delivery” and is directed to “an invention that provides stable nucleic acid-lipid particles (‘SNALP’) that have a non-lamellar structure and ‘comprise a nucleic acid . . . methods of making the SNALP, and methods of delivering and/or administering the SNALP.’” SNALP has a three-dimensional structure that is either a lamellar morphology or non-lamellar (pictured).