This morning, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued its final rule implementing district court-style claim construction at the PTAB, replacing the “broadest reasonable interpretation” standard. The official text of the rule will publish in the Federal Register on October 11, 2018, in final form. The new rule is not retroactive and will apply to petitions filed on or after the effective date of the final rule, which is Nov. 13, 2018 (i.e., the first federal business day after 30 days from publication). [Note: 30 days from an October 11, 2018 publication falls on Saturday, November 10, 2018, but the PTO’s press release [PDF] reports the effective date as November 13, 2018.]
PGR
PTAB Tech Center 1600 Round-Up: Week of October 1-5, 2018
During the week of October 1, 2018, the Board issued seven Final Written Decisions and two institution decisions in Technology Center 1600. The decisions are summarized as follows: Continue Reading PTAB Tech Center 1600 Round-Up: Week of October 1-5, 2018
PTAB Tech Center 1600 Round-Up: Week of August 27-31, 2018
By Yingli Wang on
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued two decisions in TC 1600 during the week of August 27-31, 2018. The first decision denied institution of an IPR petition filed by Hologic Inc. (Hologic) against bioMérieux, Inc. (bioMérieux). The second decision denied institution of a PGR petition filed by Rimfrost AS (Rimfrost) against Aker Biomarine Antarctic AS (Aker). The decisions are as follows: Continue Reading PTAB Tech Center 1600 Round-Up: Week of August 27-31, 2018
PTAB Proposes to Adopt the Phillips Standard for Claim Construction in Post-Grant Proceedings
By Maria A. Stubbings on
On May 8, 2018, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a proposed rulemaking to change the current claim construction standard used in inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), and covered business method (CBM) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). If approved, this change would align the standard applied in claim construction proceedings in the PTAB with the standard applied in District Courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC). Currently, the PTAB interprets patent claims according to their broadest reasonable interpretation, while District Courts and the ITC apply the ordinary and customary meaning standard set forth in Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc). This proposed rule would change the claim construction standard applied in all pending IPR, PGR, and CBM proceedings, and not just newly-filed petitions. Continue Reading PTAB Proposes to Adopt the Phillips Standard for Claim Construction in Post-Grant Proceedings