In Return Mail, Inc. v. U.S. Postal Serv., 17-1594, Justice SOTOMAYOR wrote for the majority to overturn a Federal Circuit decision that the U.S. Postal Service had standing to petition for covered business method review. The Supreme Court stated that the AIA lacks a definition for “a person” and thus interpreted this term in the statute to mean a person or a company, but not the government. In doing so, the Court distinguished the ability of the government to pursue patents and ex parte reexamination from being able to be third-party challenger in an adversarial proceeding. Justice BREYER filed a dissenting opinion joined by Justices GINSBURG and KAGAN.
