This article appeared in The Intellectual Property Strategist, an ALM/Law Journal Newsletters publication that provides a practical source of both business and litigation tactics in the fast-changing area of intellectual property law, including litigating IP rights, patent damages, venue and infringement issues, inter partes review, trademarks on social media – and more.
The America Invents Act (AIA) created inter partes review (IPR) to allow the public to challenge issued patents based upon published prior art. IPRs allowed for greater participation for challengers, and replaced the previous inter partes reexamination procedure. IPRs are conducted before a panel of Administrative Patent Judges of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In contrast, inter partes reexamination was conducted before a patent examiner, and permitted appeal to the PTAB.
