An inventor group is suing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in a Texas federal court over its precedent for discretionary denials of patent validity trials.
The agency’s use of precedent on discretionary considerations at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board is a shortcut around formal rulemaking and has led to inconsistent results, US Inventor is arguing in a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The group wants the court to order the agency to go through a formal rulemaking process. It also wants the PTAB blocked from starting new patent reviews in programs ...