Posts Tagged: "General Plastics Industrial Co v. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha"

PTAB Chief Attempts to Explain Expanded Panel Decisions, Sovereign Immunity at PPAC

Given the PTAB’s ability to make decisions precedential, Ruschke’s argument about how important and meaningful it is to have expanded panels to ensure uniformity misses the mark. The PTAB does not designate many cases as precedential (another problem for a different day), but it is possible for a three-judge panel decision to be made precedential. In fact, there have been a number of cases that have been pronounced as precedential by the PTAB where the decision was made by a three-judge panel. That being the case, why is it necessary for any expanded panels unless PTAB leadership is trying to influence Administrative Patent Judges despite the lack of a precedential designation? And doesn’t such an attempt to influence call into question the decisional independence of APJs?

Gene Quinn & Steve Brachmann

February 8, 2018

Do Recent Decisions Signal a Change in Patent Owner’s Rights to Defend and Amend Claims in Post-Grant Proceedings?

Ever since the introduction of AIA post-grant proceedings, many have questioned whether the procedural deck is stacked against patent owners. Limits on making claim amendments, having to bear the burden of showing the validity of claims already issued, and being subjected to multiple serial attacks, certainly have made it seem so. But have recent cases signaled the playing field may now be tipping ever so slightly in a patent owner’s favor? Or are these decisions just an illusion?

David Thibodeau

February 6, 2018