PTAB Delivers on Congressional Mandate

As discussed previously, the very first petition for a Covered Business Method Patent Challenge (CBM) was filed on September 16th by SAP (CBM2012-00001). The petition (here) challenged U.S. Patent  6,553,350 of Versata Development Group. In May of 2011, Versata secured a $391 million dollar verdict in the Eastern District of Texas against SAP. The verdict was upheld by the CAFC some weeks ago.

The PTAB expedited the parallel CBM proceeding to oral argument as the issues were narrowed to 101 grounds only. Yesterday, the PTAB cancelled the challenged claims. (here)

The PTAB’s 9 month turnaround in this matter is an impressive feat that should not be lost on Congress as they deliberate further patent reforms. The patentability challenges of the America Invents Act (AIA) are significantly impacting the patent litigation landscape, and it is expected that the second round of proposed reforms will increasingly focus on enhancing these valued litigation alternatives.