EXCLUSIVE: USPTO Director Wants To Oversee A PTAB Case

By Erin Coe

Law360, San Francisco (May 3, 2016, 3:48 PM ET) -- Patent owners and petitioners better come prepared the next time they head to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board because the three-judge panel hearing their validity dispute may just include U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Michelle Lee, who told Law360 she'd like to see firsthand how the proceedings are running.

Since the America Invents Act rolled out the PTAB in 2012 as a quicker and cheaper alternative for adjudicating patent validity challenges compared to district court, about 4,600 petitions seeking review of patents have been...