Apple Factors Added to NHK Mix

A few weeks back I highlighted the fact that the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) was in the process of considering a more nuanced approach to NHK determinations.  That is, with a few Board decisions seemingly denying IPR trial institutions on the sole basis of a competing, and earlier district court trial date, the Board was considering whether its approach had become too rigid.

Today, the Board designated as precedential the supplemental briefing order in Apple Inc. v. Fintiv, Inc., IPR2020-00019, Paper 11 (March 20, 2020), which lists six factors to be assessed in such scenarios.The precedential Order (here) lays out six factors (Apple factors) that the Board considers in determining whether to exercise its discretion to institute review when there is a related proceeding pending in district court, these factors, along with the Board’s explanation of each is provided below.

1.  Whether the court granted a stay or evidence exists that one may be granted if a proceeding is instituted;

A district court stay of the litigation pending resolution of the PTAB trial allays concerns about inefficiency and duplication of efforts.  This fact has strongly weighed against exercising the authority to deny institution under NHK.  In some cases, there is no stay, but the district court has denied a motion for stay without prejudice and indicated to the parties that it will consider a renewed motion or reconsider a motion to stay if a PTAB trial is instituted.  Such guidance from the district court, if made of record, suggests the district court may be willing to avoid duplicative efforts and await the PTAB’s final resolution of the patentability issues raised in the petition before proceeding with the parallel litigation.  This fact has usually weighed against exercising authority to deny institution under NHK, but, for reasons discussed below, proximity of the court’s trial date and investment of time are relevant to how much weight to give to the court’s willingness to reconsider a stay.  If a court has denied a defendant’s motion for a stay pending resolution of a PTAB proceeding, and has not indicated to the parties that it will consider a renewed motion or reconsider a motion to stay if a PTAB trial is instituted, this fact has sometimes weighed in favor of exercising authority to deny institution under NHK.

One particular situation in which stays arise frequently is during a parallel district court and ITC investigation involving the challenged patent. In such cases, the district court litigation is often stayed under 28 U.S.C. § 1659 pending the resolution of the ITC investigation.  Regardless, even though the Office and the district court would not be bound by the ITC’s decision, an earlier ITC trial date may favor exercising authority to deny institution under NHK if the ITC is going to decide the same or substantially similar issues to those presented in the petition.  The parties should indicate whether there is a parallel district court case that is ongoing or stayed under 28 U.S.C. § 1659 pending the resolution of the ITC investigation.  We recognize that ITC final invalidity determinations do not have preclusive effect, but, as a practical matter, it is difficult to maintain a district court proceeding on patent claims determined to be invalid at the ITC.   Accordingly, the parties should also indicate whether the patentability disputes before the ITC will resolve all or substantially all of the patentability disputes between the parties, regardless of the stay.

2.  Proximity of the court’s trial date to the Board’s projected statutory deadline for a final written decision;

If the court’s trial date is earlier than the projected statutory deadline, the Board generally has weighed this fact in favor of exercising authority to deny institution under NHK.  If the court’s trial date is at or around the same time as the projected statutory deadline or even significantly after the projected statutory deadline, the decision whether to institute will likely implicate other factors discussed herein, such as the resources that have been invested in the parallel proceeding.

3.   Investment in the parallel proceeding by the court and the parties;

The Board also has considered the amount and type of work already completed in the parallel litigation by the court and the parties at the time of the institution decision. Specifically, if, at the time of the institution decision, the district court has issued substantive orders related to the patent at issue in the petition, this fact favors denial.  Likewise, district court claim construction orders may indicate that the court and parties have invested sufficient time in the parallel proceeding to favor denial.  If, at the time of the institution decision, the district court has not issued orders related to the patent at issue in the petition, this fact weighs against exercising discretion to deny institution under NHK.  This investment factor is related to the trial date factor, in that more work completed by the parties and court in the parallel proceeding tends to support the arguments that the parallel proceeding is more advanced, a stay may be less likely, and instituting would lead to duplicative costs.

As a matter of petition timing, notwithstanding that a defendant has one year to file a petition, it may impose unfair costs to a patent owner if the petitioner, faced with the prospect of a looming trial date, waits until the district court trial has progressed significantly before filing a petition at the Office.  The Board recognizes, however, that it is often reasonable for a petitioner to wait to file its petition until it learns which claims are being asserted against it in the parallel proceeding.  Thus, the parties should explain facts relevant to timing.  If the evidence shows that the petitioner filed the petition expeditiously, such as promptly after becoming aware of the claims being asserted, this fact has weighed against exercising the authority to deny institution under NHK.  If, however, the evidence shows that the petitioner did not file the petition expeditiously, such as at or around the same time that the patent owner responds to the petitioner’s invalidity contentions, or even if the petitioner cannot explain the delay in filing its petition, these facts have favored denial.

4.  Overlap between issues raised in the petition and in the parallel proceeding;

In NHK, the Board was presented with substantially identical prior art arguments that were at issue in the district court (as well as those previously addressed by the Office under § 325(d)). IPR2018-00752, Paper 8 at 20. Thus, concerns of inefficiency and the possibility of conflicting decisions were particularly strong.  Accordingly, if the petition includes the same or substantially the same claims, grounds, arguments, and evidence as presented in the parallel proceeding, this fact has favored denial.  Conversely, if the petition includes materially different grounds, arguments, and/or evidence than those presented in the district court, this fact has tended to weigh against exercising discretion to deny institution under NHK.

In many cases, weighing the degree of overlap is highly fact dependent.  For example, if a petition involves the same prior art challenges but challenges claims in addition to those that are challenged in the district court, it may still be inefficient to proceed because the district court may resolve validity of enough overlapping claims to resolve key issues in the petition. The parties should indicate whether all or some of the claims challenged in the petition are also at issue in district court. The existence of non-overlapping claim challenges will weigh for or against exercising discretion to deny institution under NHK depending on the similarity of the claims challenged in the petition to those at issue in the district court.

5.  Whether the petitioner and the defendant in the parallel proceeding are the same party; and

If a petitioner is unrelated to a defendant in an earlier court proceeding, the Board has weighed this fact against exercising discretion to deny institution under NHK. Even when a petitioner is unrelated to a defendant, however, if the issues are the same as, or substantially similar to, those already or about to be litigated, or other circumstances weigh against redoing the work of another tribunal, the Board may, nonetheless, exercise the authority to deny institution.  An unrelated petitioner should, therefore, address any other district court or Federal Circuit proceedings involving the challenged patent to discuss why addressing the same or substantially the same issues would not be duplicative of the prior case even if the petition is brought by a different party.

6.  Other circumstances that impact the Board’s exercise of discretion, including the merits

As noted above, the factors considered in the exercise of discretion are part of a balanced assessment of all the relevant circumstances in the case, including the merits.  For example, if the merits of a ground raised in the petition seem particularly strong on the preliminary record, this fact has favored institution.29 In such cases, the institution of a trial may serve the interest of overall system efficiency and integrity because it allows the proceeding to continue in the event that the parallel proceeding settles or fails to resolve the patentability question presented in the PTAB proceeding.  By contrast, if the merits of the grounds raised in the petition are a closer call, then that fact has favored denying institution when other factors favoring denial are present.  This is not to suggest that a full merits analysis is necessary to evaluate this factor.  Rather, there may be strengths or weaknesses regarding the merits that the Board considers as part of its balanced assessment.

Like many of the factor-based tests applied by the PTAB, there may be additional factors considered moving forward. Stay tuned.