The Federal Circuit reconfirmed its interpretation of the IPR joinder rules of 35 U.S.C. § 315(c) after the panel’s rehearing in Facebook, Inc. v. Windy City Innovations, LLC, No. 2018-1400, 2020 WL 5267975 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 4, 2020).  Appellant Facebook, Inc. had filed a combined request for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.  The rehearing en banc was denied, but the panel granted the panel rehearing to the extent that it replaced its original precedential opinion with a revised opinion on September 4, 2020.  The conclusions of the Federal Circuit remained unchanged: § 315(c) does not permit either same-party joinder or joinder of new issues.

For more details on the Federal Circuit’s reasoning for reversing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s interpretation of the statute, see our previous article on the Federal Circuit original Facebook v. Windy City Innovations decision here.