The US Supreme Court has issued its long-awaited decisions in Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group and SAS Institute v. Iancu, bringing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s) inter partes review (IPR) procedure to a key inflection point. While the Court found that the IPR program itself was constitutional in Oil States,…
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Over the past five years, inter partes reviews (IPRs) have caused a dramatic shift in how patent disputes get resolved. Filing IPRs is a common first step for defendants faced with new litigation, allowing them to challenge patent validity early, without months of costly litigation, and thus potentially resolve cases more quickly. Now that the…
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The end of 2017 left the patent ecosystem at a crossroads, with pending judicial rulings, new strategies by plaintiffs and defendants, market realignments, and the possibility of further reform seemingly poised to swing the pendulum back toward patent owners. While much remains to be resolved, the first quarter of 2018 brought some clarity—or, at least,…
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