The US Patent and Trademark Office is proposing to sharply narrow when a patent’s validity can be challenged in administrative tribunal proceedings.
The agency’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board would have to turn away petitions from lawsuit defendants seeking inter partes review of patent claims that have previously withstood an attack on their validity based on non-obviousness or novelty, under a proposed rule set to publish Friday in the Federal Register.
The proposal follows the adoption of interim processes implemented by recent Trump appointees that have led to a drop in the number of validity challenges the PTAB takes up. ...