Patent Office Tells Supreme Court to Skip Intel Fintiv Challenge

The US Patent and Trademark Office urged the US Supreme Court to deny Intel Corp. and Edwards Lifesciences Corp.‘s petition challenging an administrative patent tribunal’s policy allowing it to reject patent challenges when there’s parallel district court litigation.

The 2011 America Invents Act, which established the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, precludes review of the petitioners’ statutory-authority and arbitrary-and-capricious claims, the PTO said in its brief. It also noted its ongoing rulemaking that could affect the PTAB’s standards for discretionary denial, saying the office’s “continuing evaluation of such issues and its ability to revisit” the factors “cannot justify ...