Talking PTAB with Bob Steinberg
Indefiniteness Before the PTAB
Note: Includes reinstated, cross-, and consolidated appeals. After two years of declines, new appeals from the USPTO increased modestly in FY22. Appeals from district courts increased year over year as well, bucking a...more
Note: Includes reinstated, cross-, and consolidated appeals. Appeals from the USPTO dipped for the second straight year in FY21. Due to a spike in appeals from the Court of Federal Claims, District Courts are now the third...more
Trimble Inc. v. PerDiemCo LLC, Appeal No. 2019-2164 (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2021) - In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit revisited its decision in Red Wing Shoe Co. v. Hockerson-Halberstadt, Inc., 148 F.3d 1355...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Patent Office) has issued final rules in inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR) and the transitional program for covered business method patents (CBM) proceedings...more
These charts and graphs appear in the firm's Federal Circuit Appeals from the PTAB and ITC: Summaries of Key 2020 Decisions report... Appeals from the USPTO dipped in FY20, reaching their lowest level since FY15. After four...more
Total PTAB petitions remained flat in FY2020, with 1513 petitions total being filed: IPR (1429), PGR (64), and CBM (20), compared to 1464 in FY2019 and 1613 FY2018, down from 1901 in FY2017. September IPR petition filings...more
Covered business method (CBM) review is scheduled to end on September 15 this year. Part of the Leahy-Smith American Invents Act, CBM review was envisioned as a transitional tool for accused infringers to challenge weak...more
The institution rate for post-grant challenges in current FY 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020) stands at 56% (478 instituted, 376 denied) compared to 63% in the previous fiscal year. This lower institution rate...more
Covered Business Method (“CBM”) review ends in mid-September, and you have one last chance to take advantage. In 2011, the AIA introduced three new administrative review proceedings of patentability with the goal of...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) proposed changes to the rules of practice for instituting review on all challenged claims or none in inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR) and the...more
The institution rate for post-grant challenges in current FY 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 through April 30, 2020) stands at 55% (370 instituted, 300 denied) compared to 63% in the previous fiscal year. This lower institution rate...more
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued Notices of Waiver of certain USPTO deadlines, including deadlines in inter partes review (IPR), post grant review (PGR), and covered...more
Under the America Invents Act, the USPTO is to stop accepting petitions for review of covered business method patents after September 16, 2020. Given the various other priorities Congress will be dealing with between now and...more
Powerful. Resilient. Ever-evolving. These characteristics of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) were on full display in 2019. This past year the PTAB received more than 1,300 inter partes review (IPR), post grant review...more
After the Supreme Court’s 2019 decision in Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service, 139 S. Ct. 1853 (2019), held that federal agencies are not “persons” eligible to challenge a patent at the PTAB, the government was...more
The institution rate for post-grant challenges in current FY 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020) stands at 56% compared to 63% in the previous fiscal year. While a relatively small sample size (204 instituted, 161...more
The institution rate for post-grant challenges in current FY 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019) stands at 55% compared to 63% in the previous fiscal year. While a small sample size (138 instituted, 113 denied),...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently posted the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) statistics for December 2019 (first quarter of FY2020)....more
To wrap up 2019 and usher in 2020 for practitioners who handle Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) matters, Foley partners Jeanne Gills, Steve Maebius, and George Quillin discussed 2019’s major developments in a webinar on...more
The institution rate for post-grant challenges in current FY 2020 (Oct. 1, 2019 through November 31, 2019) stands at 50% compared to 63% in the previous fiscal year. While a small sample size (88 instituted, 88 denied), this...more
In November, the PTAB Bar Association held its annual Thought Leader Summit. The Summit highlighted recent changes to PTAB practice, with a keynote address from USPTO Director Andrei Iancu. In the opening remarks, Director...more
When former President Barack Obama signed the Leahy–Smith America Invents Act into law on Sept. 16, 2011, the patent system in the United States underwent one of its most sweeping and significant overhauls. The AIA replaced...more
United States Automobile Association (USAA), a financial services company that provides insurance, banking, investment, and retirement products and services for members of the military and their families, filed a surprising...more
Yesterday October 31, 2019, a 3-judge panel of the Federal Circuit (Judges Moore, Reyna, and Chen) issued a unanimous decision holding that the USPTO’s appointment practice for Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) violates the...more
n a decision with potential far-reaching implications, Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., the Federal Circuit held Thursday that appointments of Administrative Patent Judges (“APJs”) of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s...more