Patent Death Squad Judges Can Be Fired, U.S. Appeals Court Says

A U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday that judges on a patent review panel were unconstitutionally appointed, casting a cloud over some of its work.

The ruling ordered a new hearing before different judges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s review board in a challenge filed by Smith & Nephew Plc over an Arthrex Inc. patent for a surgical device. The court suggested other pending patent challenges may suffer the same fate.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that, under a 2011 law that created the reviews before the panel, called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board,...