The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has extended an olive branch to patent owners last week just as a constitutional challenge to its existence began heating up in the Supreme Court.
With Chief Judge David Ruschke and Deputy Chief Judge Scott Boalick signing on to the decision, the PTAB made clear in a decision this past week that it will no longer tolerate multiple, serial petitions for inter partes review (IPR) that target the same patent claims. Serial petitions are a hot-button issue for patent owners, many of whom feel besieged by the administrative procedures set up by the America Invents Act (AIA) to determine patent validity.
