A 6-1-2 ruling in Hyatt v. Kappos on Nov. 8 called an applicant’s ability to introduce new evidence “the hallmark” of a district court appeal of a Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences decision. The Patent Code allows applicants to appeal patent board decisions to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia or to the Federal Circuit.
The majority opinion, authored by Judge Kimberly Moore, held that the Patent Code section allowing such appeals “imposes no limitation on an applicant’s right to introduce new evidence before the district court, apart from the evidentiary limitations applicable to all civil actions….[W]e reject the Director’s proposal that only ‘new evidence that could not reasonably have been provided to the agency in the first instance’ is admissible.”
