Supreme Court to rule on IPR standards

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case that could address two of the drug industry's key complaints about the inter partes review system. In Cuozzo Speed Technologies LLC v. Lee, the Supreme Court will consider the standards for reviewing patent claim challenges brought under IPR, and whether decisions by the Patent Trials and Appeals Board (PTAB) are subject to review by the courts. A victory for Cuozzo could make it more difficult for hedge fund managers such as Kyle Bass to persuade PTAB to institute cases, and also make it harder to win cases that are instituted.

Cuozzo is asking the Supreme Court to force PTAB to abandon the "broadest reasonable interpretation" standard for reviewing IPR challenges, and instead to employ standards used by district courts. The broadest reasonable interpretation standard, which is less stringent than the standards applied by district courts, unfairly favors challengers, according to BIO (see BioCentury, May 18, 2015). ...