Last week, four major technology companies – Apple, Cisco, Google, and Intel – brought suit against the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), challenging its authority to reject petitions for inter partes review (“IPR”) based on two precedential decisions by its Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”).  The decisions, Apple Inc. v. Fintiv, Inc.

On June 18, 2020, the Federal Circuit granted JHO Intellectual Property Holdings, LLC’s (“JHO”) motion to vacate the PTAB’s final written decision and remand the case in light of the court’s decision in Arthrex. In an ex parte reexamination proceeding, the PTAB denied JHO’s request for rehearing of its decision affirming the Examiner’s rejections

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the PTAB”) for the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently published a decision on appeal which overturned an Examiner’s rejection in application number 15/322,059. The PTAB held that the Examiner failed to adequately explain how a disputed reference taught the claimed subject matter. Ex parte Kensuke Matsumura, Masayiki

On May 27, 2020, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) proposed amendments to its rules governing post-grant proceedings, addressing three topics.  First, petitions for post-grant proceedings would require institution of all claims or denial of the petition. Second, patent owners would be permitted to file sur-replies to principal briefs. Third, the rules would eliminate

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announced that it considers the effects of COVID-19 (“the Coronavirus”) to be an “extraordinary situation.” Under 37 CFR 1.183, in extraordinary situations, the Director may suspend or waive any requirement of the regulations which is not a statutory requirement. Accordingly, as of the time of this writing,

In BioDelivery Sciences International v. Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc., the Federal Circuit recently denied a petition for a rehearing en banc after the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB” or “the Board”) interpreted its remand order to “implement the [Supreme] Court’s decision in [SAS Institute v. Iancu]”[1] by modifying its institution decision, denying

On December 11, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) designated Ex parte Hannun, 2018-003323 (Apr. 1, 2019) as an informative PTAB decision for applying the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (“2019 PEG”) to determine patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

As laid