Faced with criticism from legislators and patent owners for perceived serial harassment by patent challengers, on May 7, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the PTAB” or “the Board”) designated two decisions as “precedential” that arguably expand its discretion to deny petitions in PTAB proceedings.

Previously, in General Plastic Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Canon

The PTAB has broad discretion under 35 U.S.C. § 325(d) to deny institution if “the same or substantially the same prior art or arguments previously were presented to the Office.” Several are aware that the PTAB commonly exercises its discretion to deny “follow-on” petitions that seek to challenge the validity of a patent that has

The Supreme Court held in SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu, 138 S. Ct. 1348 (2018), that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB” or “the Board”) practice of so-called partial institutions was contrary to the statute.  The Supreme Court explained that once an inter partes review (“IPR”) is instituted, the PTAB must decide on

In the recent opinion in Unwired Planet, LLC v. Google Inc., the Federal Circuit has limited the reach of covered business method (CBM) reviews.  The Board had framed its CBM eligibility standard as asking “whether the patent claims activities that are financial in nature, incidental to a financial activity, or complementary to a financial