Latest PTAB Decisions: Leveraging Trends in Institution and Final Written Decisions, Understanding Federal Circuit Scrutiny To Date

Description

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is the busiest jurisdiction for post-grant challenges to U.S. patents, as district court litigation filings continue their downward trend from a peak in 2013. Filings of petitions in the PTAB for inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR) and covered business method PGR (CBM) proceedings are approaching almost 2000 per year. Over the past year, there have been several administrative developments, new rules, and notable Federal Circuit decisions in appeals from the PTAB of AIA post-grant proceedings.

Patent counsel can learn a great deal from the PTAB’s institution and final written decisions (FWDs) over the last twelve months, which is the relevant period for this webinar. Counsel must be up-to-date and understand the significant developments over the past year from key PTAB rulings to increase the likelihood of success going forward for its clients.

Prior to mid-2016, the Federal Circuit seemed to be rubber stamping decisions relating to PTAB procedures and decisions, often by Rule 36 affirmance with no written opinion. However, the Federal Circuit now is apparently pushing back, as, for example, in In re Aqua Products, 833 F.3d 1335 (Fed. Cir. 2016) and Veritas Techs. LLC v. Veeam Software Corp., 835 F.3d 1406 (Fed. Cir. 2016), vacating the PTAB’s denial of Patent Owners’ motions to amend. While the affirmance rate remains high, the Federal Circuit has now vacated and remanded or reversed and remanded numerous times, leaving the PTAB to figure out on its own how it should address these cases on remand when there is no procedure set forth in the AIA or current PTAB rules.

Listen as our authoritative panel of patent attorneys with extensive experience in AIA post-grant proceedings provides analysis of the latest precedential and other notable PTAB decisions over the last 12 months. The panel will examine PTAB outcomes both at institution and final disposition, as well as procedural developments during PTAB trials. The panel will also review notable Federal Circuit review of PTAB FWDs over the period, as well as the PTAB’s handling of the cases on remand. They will offer insight into what these decisions mean going forward and offer best practices for handling post-grant proceedings before the PTAB.