Posts Tagged: "MerchSource"

Doubling Down on Double Adjudication – the MerchSource post-issuance review model

Imagine this: you become aware of a patent that might cover your products, so you reach out to the patentee to secure a license agreement. After negotiating and entering the agreement, you later decide you’d like to pay less or no royalties. So you threaten to file some IPR and PGR petitions, and when that fails to secure more favorable terms, you breach the contract. If you find yourself sued for patent infringement you protest to the court that as the agent of public interest, you must be allowed to simultaneously challenge the validity of the patents not only before that court, but also before the PTAB. On the same grounds. At the same time. This is what at least one licensee is trying, and the Federal Circuit may soon provide guidance on the viability of this double-adjudication-for-the-public-good-tactic.