Category: motion practice
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PTAB Expanded Panel Decides Sovereign Immunity Is Waived For District Court Patent Assertions by State Entities
Sovereign immunity has been a topic of great debate ever since the Patent Trial and Appeal Board applied it to dismiss inter partes reviews (IPRs) involving state owned patent rights. In Covidien v. University of Florida Research Foundation the Board dismissed three IPRs based on sovereign immunity. (IPR2016-01274, -01275, -01276.) Other universities caught wind of the Covidien decision…
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Patent Office Board Takes a Bite out of Apple’s IPR Challenge of VirnetX Patents
In mid-2013 Apple filed seven inter partes review petitions to challenge four VirnetX patents. Recently, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the Board) denied all seven inter partes review (IPR) petitions. This outcome demonstrates the Board’s current interpretation of the one-year bar applied in IPR proceedings and its position on joinder of petitions. Apple’s Interpretation of the…
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PTAB Provides More Guidance on Discovery
On March 5, 2013, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) provided guidance to the bar concerning routine discovery and additional discovery. (See paper 26 in Garmin v. Cuozzo, IPR2012-00001) This decision set forth five factors which are important in determining what constitutes discovery satisfying the “necessary in the interest of justice” standard under 35…
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PTAB IPR Petition Joinder Practice Gains Momentum
Suppose a patent owner files suit and the defendant wants to file an AIA post-grant proceeding to challenge the validity of the patent. Suppose further that the post-grant challenge is an inter partes review (IPR) filed by the defendant within a year of service of process of the complaint. If the IPR petition only alleges…
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AIA Patent Trials Differ from Reexamination
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in America Invents Act, covered business methods, estoppel, estoppel, ex parte reexamination, inter partes reexamination, inter partes review, motion practice, Patent Reform, Post Grant Review, pro hac vice admission, PTAB, PTAB Patent Trials, reexamination generally, reexamination pendency, Special Dispatch, Substantial New Question (SNQ), UncategorizedIn the past few months, I have had discussions with many different stakeholders about how AIA post-grant review differs from conventional reexamination. AIA patent trials (post-grant review or PGR, inter partes review or IPR, and covered business method patent review or CBM) are substantially different than traditional reexamination. Some of these differences are summarized in…
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PTAB Provides Convenient Access to Instructive Orders, Notices, and Decisions
The Patent Trial and Appeals Board has provided a web page that compiles instructive orders, notices, and decisions. This is a handy reference site for practitioners to learn from decisions made in various covered business method (CBM), inter partes reviews (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR) proceedings.
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Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Guidance on Pro Hac Vice Admissions
The PTAB (“Board”) has already decided some motions for pro hac vice admission in various PTAB case proceedings. A recent decision in case IPR2012-00035 referenced an earlier decision on motion for pro hac vice admission in case IPR2013-00010. The relevant part of that decision entered October 15, 2012 (Paper 6) states the rules for pro hac…
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Pro Hac Vice Admission Denied in SAP v. Versata CBM Patent Review
My prior post described the pro hac vice admission dispute between SAP and Versata Development Group in PTAB matter CBM2012-00001. The PTAB wasted no time and issued an order denying the motion for pro hac vice admission of Versata’s litigation trial counsel on November 6, 2012. The PTAB essentially found that Versata failed to demonstrate…
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Patent Challenger Seeks PTAB Jurisdiction over “Involved” Pending Applications
The AIA provides new post-issuance proceedings to challenge issued patents. But can these challenges be used to stop related pending patent prosecution dead in its tracks? One recent inter partes review petition requests just that and time will tell whether the PTAB takes control of the related applications. Chi Mei Innolux Corp. (CMI) filed a…