The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has made clear that it will not review initial decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to institute inter partes review. It also has signaled that it will review final written decisions by the board.
But how about a case that gets decided somewhere in between? Two litigants are now battling over the Federal Circuit’s jurisdiction over a case where the PTAB instituted proceedings, the parties conducted briefing and discovery, and the case was then terminated when the PTAB determined that not all real parties in interest had been disclosed.
