Supreme Court PTAB Ruling Applies to Business Method Review (1)

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision barring legal challenges to threshold decisions on the institution of Patent Trial and Appeal Board inter partes review also applies to whether a patent is eligible for covered business method review, the Federal Circuit said Tuesday.

Emerson Electric Co. challenged the validity of a SIPCO LLC wireless communication patent—U.S. Patent No. 8,908,842—under the PTAB’s CBM review process. The board found the patent eligible for CBM review because it didn’t contain a “technical solution to a technical problem.” It later invalidated the relevant parts of the patent based on prior art, and SIPCO appealed.

The ...