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19 November 2015Patents

AIPLA and BIO call on US Supreme Court to review PTAB’s BRI standard

A group of intellectual property trade associations has called on the US Supreme Court to review the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) application of the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) standard when construing patent claims.

The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and PhRMA have all backed Cuozzo Speed Technologies in its bid to overturn a decision from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that affirmed the PTAB’s invalidation of its speedometer patent.

In July, the federal circuit declined, in a 6-5 ruling, to hear en banc Cuozzo’s appeal against the decision to invalidate the patent.

Cuozzo argued that the application of the BRI during an inter partes review is inconsistent with district courts’ application of the Phillipsstandard of claim construction. Cuozzo argued that the broader the interpretation of a patent claim, the more likely it is to encompass prior art, which makes it easier to invalidate the patent.

AIPLA filed an amicus brief in the case on November 9, urging the Supreme Court to take the case. It argued that the “inconsistent standards” applied by both the PTAB and district courts to claim construction is an “issue of exceptional importance”.

The “application of BRI negates the presumption of validity otherwise afforded [to] issued patents”, it added.

BIO said the differing interpretations  mean the PTAB has been invalidating patents at an “alarming rate”, and PhRMA argued that if the federal circuit’s decision is left to stand then it “will threaten the predictability and strength of protection that the patent system provides”.

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