Rebutting the Presumption of Unreasonability
Given the complications associated with amending litigated claims, amendment is still relatively rare at the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB). Yet, there remain Patent Owners willing to amend claims in limited scenarios. For these Patent Owners, the Board has provided some helpful guidance post Aqua Products. As a reminder, newly designated precedent Western Digital Corp. v. SPEX Techs., Inc has replaced now de-designated precedent/informative decisions of MasterImage 3D, Inc. v. RealD Inc.,Case IPR2015-00040 (PTAB July 15, 2015) (Paper 42) and Idle Free Sys., Inc. v. Bergstrom, Inc., Case IPR2012-00027 (June 11, 2013) (Paper 26).
However, Aqua Products did not overrule all aspects of these earlier decisions despite their de-designations. So, the question remains as to the continued viability of some of these earlier positions — such as the standard for assessing a “reasonable number” of substitute claims.
In a decision issued today, the Board emphasized that adding claims beyond a 1-1 substitution creates a presumption of unreasonability. And, that rebutting that presumption may not necessarily require a showing of patentable distinctness between multiple substitutes, as previously explained in Idle Free.
Continue Reading PTAB Debates Standard for Reasonable Number of Substitute Claims