Supreme Court Eliminates Government as a Party Who Can File AIA Action at PTAB

In Return Mail, Inc. v. U.S. Postal Serv., 17-1594, Justice SOTOMAYOR wrote for the majority to overturn a Federal Circuit decision that the U.S. Postal Service had standing to petition for covered business method review. The Supreme Court stated that the AIA lacks a definition for “a person” and thus interpreted this term in the statute to mean a person or a company, but not the government. In doing so, the Court distinguished the ability of the government to pursue patents and ex parte reexamination from being able to be third-party challenger in an adversarial proceeding. Justice BREYER filed a dissenting opinion joined by Justices GINSBURG and KAGAN.

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