May 2019

Patent Owners Largely Ignore Ex Parte Amendment Options

A few weeks back the USPTO issued a Notice Regarding Options for Amendments by Patent Owner Through Reissue or Reexamination During a Pending AIA Trial Proceeding (here). The Notice provided no new information, instead, it served to remind the public that reissue/reexamination options exist to amend claims outside of AIA trials. Given the continuous public outcry over AIA amendment difficulties, one would expect a fairly robust jump in reexam/reissue filing rates—especially as these options provide an ex parte amendment process.

However, as recent Patent Trial & Appeal PTAB statistics show, very few Patent Owners are pursuing these traditional amendment paths.
Continue Reading Amending Outside of the PTAB: Why So Few Reexams/Reissues?

Mere Existence of JDG Found to be Enough

It can be an uphill battle to secure additional discovery at the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) given the “interests of justice” standard of IPR proceedings. For this reason, Patent Owners seeking discovery on petitioner relationships — to discover unnamed parties in RPI/privity disputes — are frequently turned away absent “smoking gun” evidence of such a relationship.

However, a recent decision of the Board appears to take a far more liberal view of multi-defendant relationships where a Joint Defense Group (JDG) is known to exist.
Continue Reading PTAB Discovery of JDG Agreements