Federal Circuit Issues First IPR Opinion

The Federal Circuit has issued its first opinion from an appeal on the merits of an inter partes review, In re Cuozzo Speed Techs. In In re Cuozzo, the court held that the decisions of the USPTO to institute an IPR are final and cannot be appealed to the Federal Circuit, and that the USPTO’s use of the broadest reasonable interpretation standard to interpret patent claims in IPRs was proper.

However, Judge Newman wrote a vigorous dissent, arguing among other things that the “broadest reasonable interpretation” standard should be used only in examination and that having different standards in IPRs and district court litigation reduces the value of IPRs as a litigation surrogate. This may encourage the Federal Circuit to review the case en banc.