Return Mail Back to Patent Board After Landmark High Court Ruling

A federal appeals court returned a watershed case to the Patent and Trademark Office following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the government can’t bring administrative patent challenges.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 9 passed Return Mail, Inc. v. USPS to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, in light of the Supreme Court’s June ruling. The 6-3 decision, reversing the Federal Circuit, found that the government is not, under the 2011 America Invents Act, a “person” eligible to challenge the validity of patents at the PTAB.

Attorneys have ...