PTAB’s Precedent Tightens Prior Art Guidelines in Validity Trials

New Patent Trial and Appeal Board precedents addressing how the board will assess prior inventions in patent challenges could drive parties to be more discriminating about what evidence they submit in efforts to invalidate patents.

The board March 24 designated two decisions—Advanced Bionics, LLC v. MED-EL Elektromedizinische Geräte GmbH and Oticon Medical AB v. Cochlear Limited—as precedential to offer guidance on how the tribunal exercises the discretion it has to grant or deny a patent review.

“As a practitioner, you really want to look at potential art that is going to really bring something new to the table,” ...