PTAB Precedential Opinion Panel further Clarifies What Defines a Complaint that Triggers One Year Time Bar for IPRs

Jon Wright, co-chair of Sterne Kessler’s Appellate Practice, was interviewed by Law360 earlier this week regarding the POP’s decision regarding the one year time bar for filing an IPR after serving a district court complaint. The decision clarified that even if a district court filing was flawed, the time bar clock started upon the date of first filing “regardless of whether the serving party lacked standing to sue or the pleading was otherwise deficient.”

The POP’s decision rests primarily on a Federal Circuit ruling in Dex Media Inc. v Click-to-Call Technologies, which is still subject to Supreme Court review. However, the Supreme Court is addressing whether the Federal Circuit can review PTAB institution decisions at all. The question of time bar is secondary to that Supreme Court review. As Jon notes in the article, “If the court determines that the Federal Circuit should not have reviewed (Click-to-Call), then these precedential decisions become even more important, because they are effectively the final word” on issues involved in institution decisions.

You can find the entire Law360 discussion of the POP’s time bar decision here.

This article appeared in the August 2019 issue of PTAB Strategies and Insights. To view our past issues, as well as other firm newsletters, please click here.