USPTO Director Fires Back At Challenge To AIA Reviews

By Kurt Orzeck

Law360, Los Angeles (June 23, 2016, 8:25 PM ET) -- The director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday told the Federal Circuit that America Invents Act patent reviews are constitutional and that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board didn’t err when it invalidated the asserted claims of its patent for extended-release drug technology.

In an intervenor brief, attorneys for the USPTO director said that Depomed Inc. acknowledged in the appeal that the Federal Circuit recently confirmed the constitutionality of inter partes reviews that Congress instituted in 2011 as part of the AIA....