Patent Office Denied Legal Fees in District Court Appeals (1)

The Patent and Trademark Office can’t demand attorney fee reimbursement from patent applicants who challenge rejections in district court, a federal appeals court ruled in a closely watched case.

The decision makes it easier for patent applicants to challenge rejections. It’s a setback for the Patent and Trademark Office in its bid to recover its attorneys’ fees in district court challenges. The cases are expensive to handle, and the fees help defray the costs, the patent office argued.

Biotechnology company NantKwest Inc., which sued the PTO after its cancer treatment patent was rejected, doesn’t have to pay the agency’s legal ...