PTABWatch Blog
http://www.ptabwatch.com/author/mmuczynski/PTABWatch, provided by Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP, analyzes and reports recent developments concerning Post-Grant Proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), including Inter Partes Review (IPR), Post Grant Review (PGR), and Covered Business Method (CBM) proceedings.
Recent Blog Posts
- Pending Bill Would Deliver More Judicial Scrutiny to USPTO and FDA Rules The House of Representatives recently sent to the Senate its bill (H.R.5) that combines six previous regulatory reform bills, including, as Title II of the bill, the “Separation of Powers Restoration Act.” Section 202 of the bill effectively removes the option for courts to apply Chevron deference to agency rulemaking and interpretations. Thus, rather than deciding whether a regulation is permissible as reasonably related to the purposes of the enabling legislation, by amending 5 U.S.C. § 706, the bill will require... More
- Post-Filing Claim Amendments Don’t Change the Effective Filing Date for Post Grant Review In considering a novel issue of Post-Grant Review (PGR) eligibility, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board followed the straightforward language of the America Invents Act (“AIA”), and longstanding precedent, holding that post-filing amendments to a pre-AIA patent application do not change its effective filing date and, thus, do not make it eligible for PGR. David O.B.A. Adebimpe v. Doang-Trang T. Vu & The Johns Hopkins Univ., Case PGR2016-00020, Paper No. 14 (P.T.A.B. July 25, 2016). According to AIA § 6(f)(2)(A) and... More
- “Providing . . . information” Step Given No Patentable Weight The PTAB recently addressed the limits on strategies to patent drug labeling, canceling claims directed to a method of supplying a pharmaceutical product where the method includes a step of providing certain “information” to the medical provider. According to the PTAB, the claimed step of providing the information is entitled to no patentable weight under the “printed matter” doctrine where it is not functionally related to other elements of the claimed method. Specifically, even if the claim says that the... More