The Senate Judiciary Committee’s IP Subcommittee had an active day yesterday with members sending out a pairPatent Application Information Retrieval System. The USPTO's electronic system for storing and accessing information regarding a patent. There is a public version for searching file wrappers. of letters that suggest that they see some serious problems in the patent system.
The first letter, sent by both Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Tillis to Chief Justice Roberts, in his role as head of the Judicial Conference, expresses serious concerns about the Waco court—and especially about Judge Albright’s behavior. Referring both to Judge Albright’s history of soliciting patent cases to his court and to his poor track record at the Federal Circuit—15 grants of mandamus and counting—Sens. Leahy and Tillis express concern about the lack of guidance on case assignment within a single district for patent cases and the abuses it enables. While their letter states they’re not aware of similar problems in other single judge divisions, there’s some evidence of this type of shopping in other arenas—manipulation of bankruptcy trustees and even more concerning, forum selling in the area of large company bankruptcies. The letter closes by requesting the Judicial Conference study the abuses the present situation enables and provide recommendations for how the problem could be fixed.
The second letter, sent by Sen. Tillis to Acting Director Hirshfeld at the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO., notes that the second Fintiv factor for discretionary denial relies on trial dates that have proven to be extremely inaccurate. The Fintiv analysis is usually based on trial dates set early in the case, but those trial dates are almost always not the dates on which trial actually occurs, with trial typically happening months later because scheduling and docket changes push back the original trial date. While supporting the goal of reducing duplication in the patent system, Sen. Tillis notes that the Federal CircuitSee CAFC has rejected the use of the Waco Division’s trial dates in the context of venue transfer motions and calls into question the USPTO’s use of the inaccurate trial dates in the Fintiv analysis. Sen. Tillis requests that the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO. consider whether Fintiv should be modified to account for “unrealistic trial scheduling” and provide a response by the end of the year.
Sen. Tillis and Sen. Leahy clearly recognize the problems in Waco and at the PTABPatent Trial and Appeal Board. Reviews adverse decisions of examiners on written appeals of applicants and appeals of reexaminations, and conducts inter partes reviews and post-grant reviews. The Board also continues to decide patent interferences, as it was known as the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) before the AIA., and their leadership on these issues is much appreciated—now it’s time for stakeholders in the judiciary and at the USPTOUnited States Patent and Trademark Office. See also PTO. to take action.
