Posts Tagged: "inter partes"

Amici Urge Supreme Court to Grant Celgene’s Petition on Constitutionality of Retroactive IPRs

Law professors recently filed an amicus brief in support of the Celgene’s petition for writ of certiorari to take up Celgene Corp v. Peter on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). In Celgene the CAFC addressed the applicability of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to inter partes reviews (IPRs), holding “that the retroactive application of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings to pre-America Invents Act (AIA) patents is not an unconstitutional taking under the Fifth Amendment.”

PTAB Trends: More Orange Book Patents Are Surviving the ‘Death Squad’

Since its inception, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has been a frequent venue for patent challenges in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. By the end of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) 2018 fiscal year, patents in those fields were targeted in nearly 10% of all petitions for inter partes review (IPR), totaling approximately 900 individual petitions. Of these 900 petitions, roughly 5% challenged patents listed in the FDA’s Orange Book for approved drug products. The remaining petitions challenged biologic drugs (1.3%) and other biologic-, biotechnology-, or pharmaceutical-related patents (3.5%). Many of these petitions have ultimately resulted in the cancellation of all challenged claims, including those of a significant number of Orange Book patents. Based on the PTAB’s initial high rate of claim cancellation in pharma and other areas, critics of the PTAB were quick to deem it a patent “death squad.” Does the PTAB still deserve the “death squad” label when it comes to Orange Book patents? In this article, we examine the rates of challenge, institution, and final written decision outcomes for patents listed in the Orange Book, from the PTAB’s inception through the end of its 2018 fiscal year.

Federal Circuit Allows Reconsideration of Non-Instituted Ground in IPR

In AC Techs., S.A. v. Amazon.com, Inc. the Federal Circuit found the PTAB did not exceed its statutory authority by addressing a non-instituted ground on reconsideration; in fact, it would have violated the statutory scheme for the PTAB not to consider the previously non-instituted ground… The claims at issue related to data access and management, namely, storing copies of data across a network to improve data integrity and reduce network lag. Amazon and Blizzard challenged the ’680 patent based on a single prior art reference. They presented three grounds in their petition, all centered on the construction of the term “computer unit.”

No Debate: Article III Standing is a Requisite to Appeal an IPR

On January 11, GKN Automotive LTD. filed a brief in opposition to a petition for writ of certiorari filed by JTEKT Corporation. The question JTEKT seeks to have the Supreme Court consider is whether any inter partes review (IPR) petitioner, even a petitioner without standing, may appeal a final written decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The standing requirement for litigants in order to gain entry to a federal court is well-established, black-letter law taught to every law student across the country. It is hardly shocking that the Federal Circuit would apply well-established Constitutional safeguards and procedural law to prevent those without appropriate grievances from entry into the federal appellate system. In this case, JTEKT simply did not have any injury, real or imagined.

In Support of the Right of Dissatisfied Parties to Appeal Adverse IPR Decisions

On January 11th, Askeladden LLC (Askeladden) filed an amicus brief in support of the Supreme Court accepting certiorari from JTEKT Corp. v. GKN Automotive Ltd., No. 2017-1828 (Fed. Cir. 2018). This case raises the important question of whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit can refuse to hear an appeal by a non-defendant petitioner from an adverse final written decision in an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding on the basis of a lack of a patent-inflicted injury-in-fact, even though Congress has statutorily created the right for “dissatisfied” parties to appeal to the Federal Circuit. 35 U.S.C. § 319.

Ultimately, the panel held that JTEKT failed to establish an actual injury sufficient to confer Article III standing because “the[] declarations [did] not establish that [JTEKT’s] planned product would create a substantial risk of infringing [the] patent or likely lead to charges of infringement[.]” Id. Further, the panel did not agree with JTEKT’s argument that the “creation of estoppel based on [JTEKT’s] participation in the IPR constitute[d] a separate, and independent, injury[.]” Id. Therefore, the appeal was dismissed.

According to the brief: “The issue raised is whether meeting the statutory requirements of Section 319 of Title 35 of the United States Code is an intangible injury-in-fact that is enough to meet the “case or controversy” requirements of Article III of the U.S. Constitution.”