The US Patent and Trademark Office should crack down on instances of “process abuse” in patent validity reviews, the agency was told in amicus briefs related to the high-profile director review of two VLSI Technology LLC patents underlying a $2.18 billion verdict against Intel Corp.
While agency’s current rules state that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board “may” sanction abuse of process, inventor Ramzi Khalil Maalouf wrote in a brief posted Thursday that it should change the language to make sanctions mandatory.
“Litigation conduct like that under review here has festered and metastasized at the Board,” Maalouf wrote. “That can ...