USPTO wants SCOTUS to halt Arthrex appeals

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) wants the country’s Supreme Court to delay dealing with a combined petition challenging almost 40 court judgments until a constitutional snag has been resolved.

The Supreme Court is currently processing a slew of petitions stemming from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s controversial  Arthrex decision, which held that administrative patent judges (APJs) were unconstitutionally appointed.

APJs sit on the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the USPTO body that deals with patent invalidation requests.

The Federal Circuit subsequently cancelled PTAB decisions in 39 cases, ordering them to be reheard after the constitutional problem was fixed.

These 39 cases have now resulted in a combined petition to the Supreme Court, seeking a reversal of the Federal Circuit’s decision.

But the USPTO says that this should wait until its  own petition, calling for the original Arthrex decision to be scrapped entirely, has been dealt with.

“Accordingly, because this court’s disposition of the government’s petition in Arthrex may affect the proper disposition of these cases, this petition should be held pending the disposition of that petition and any further proceedings in this court,” the USPTO petition said.

The Federal Circuit’s fix in Arthrex was to give the USPTO director greater powers to remove APJs from office.

But the USPTO says this was unnecessary, and is adamant that the ruling should be overturned.

The USPTO also argued that the decision set a negative precedent and would allow parties to delay litigation by raising similar claims on appeal.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox.