Lawyers Weigh In On PTAB Cases At The High Court
Associate Dustin Weeks is quoted in a recent Law360 titled, “Lawyers Weigh In On PTAB Cases At The High Court.” Dustin talks about how two Supreme Court decisions will impact attorneys practicing before the PTAB. He is quoted, saying, “After Oil States, petitioners should feel relatively confident that IPRs provide an effective means to challenge the validity of patents. The limitations on the scope of the court’s decision, however, leave open the possibility for patent owners to challenge the constitutionality of IPRs on other grounds. For patents issuing prior to the passage of the AIA, patent owners should argue that Congress lacked the authority to create this new IPR process to review the PTO’s prior grant of a public right. ... The court’s decision also left the door open for patent owners to challenge the revocation of these public rights as violating the Due Process Clause or Takings Clause. ... Patent owners should use the court’s holding in SAS Institute to broaden the scope of estoppel to a petitioner. ... With the PTAB’s partial institution decisions now forbidden, petitioners should now be estopped from rearguing the patentability of non-instituted claims in a district court litigation. Petitioners should use the IPR trial as a second chance to convince the PTAB that claims are unpatentable.”