PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD (PTAB)

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The Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion on March 4, 2025, that serves as valuable guidance for product-by-process claims, particularly in the context of inherency in claim construction. In Restem, LLC v. Jadi Cell, LLC, the Court affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s inter partes review final written decision in favor of the patent owner, Jadi Cell, LLC, upholding claims in U.S. Patent No. 9,803,176 (the “ ’176 Patent”) directed to stem cells derived from umbilical cord subepithelial layer (“SL”) tissue with specific cell marker expressions (“Claimed Cells”).

patent denial

On the heels of the rescission of the Fintiv guidance memorandum, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has again reshaped the PTAB’s approach to discretionary denials. On March 26, 2025, the Acting Director issued a new memorandum that fundamentally changes how the PTAB will handle inter partes review and post grant review petitions

On February 28, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was rescinding a 2022 memorandum that provided guidance regarding the application of the Apple v. Fintiv decision to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s discretion to deny patent challenges with pending parallel district court litigation. The PTO has referred parties back to precedent for guidance including Apple Inc. v. Fintiv, Inc. Rescinding the 2022 memorandum also has the effect of effectively removing the proposed rules related to discretionary denial that were under consideration as recently as last year.

The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in MaxPower Semiconductor Inc. et al v. Rohm Semiconductor USA, LLC highlights the interplay between the liberal federal policy favoring arbitration agreements and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) authority as an agency tribunal having a broad role to protect the public interest in ensuring the quality of patents.

Challenging the validity of a patent through the inter partes review (IPR) process at the PTAB is a conventional alternative to litigating invalidity in federal court. MaxPower addressed the question of whether the PTAB will defer to an agreement to arbitrate that did not expressly preclude the parties from proceeding before the PTAB.

Recent Precedential Decisions Applying Fintiv

When a company is sued for patent infringement, often one early strategic consideration is whether to counterattack the patent’s validity at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a parallel post-grant proceeding such as inter partes review (IPR) or post-grant review (PGR). Although the PTAB has recently conformed certain practices more closely to litigation—notably, its claim construction and indefiniteness standards—it remains a valuable venue for patent challengers seeking a relatively speedy, predictable, and cost-effective process.