Patent Office Issues First Post-Grant Review Decisions

Deborah Sterling, Ph.D., a director in the firm’s Biotechnology/Chemical Group, recently commented on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) first two decisions under the post-grant review (PGR) procedure created in 2011 by the America Invents Act. In both PGRs, the PTAB elected to invalidate two patents protecting computer implemented methods for valuing livestock, finding them unpatentable under Section 101. Dr. Sterling emphasized the importance of the PTAB’s decision looking beyond Section 101 of obviousness to evidentiary issues when they were determining that an earlier cattle valuation system was not prior art.