LES 2019 Annual Meeting

Director Robert Greene Sterne will be moderating the “Fireside Chat” at the LES 2019 Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The “Fireside Chat” will have speakers, Judge Paul Michel, Chief Judge (ret.) and Chief APJ Scott R. Boalick, PTAB, U.S. Patent and Trade Office.

The PTAB has had a fundamental impact on U.S. patents since it became operational in September, 2012. Patent valuations have gone done, uncertainty has risen, and predictability of patent rights eroded. Yet, some of the worse “bad patents” have been appropriately invalidated. Questions arise, however, whether valid patent are still sometimes wrongly cancelled and patent owners harassed by abusive or repetitive petitions, despite many recent improvements in the IPR process. The panel will have a frank dialogue on what the PTAB has done correctly, what it needs to improve, and possible solutions to systemic issues.