Category Archives: PGR

It Stays Secret Only if it Doesn’t Matter: Confidentiality at the PTAB

The PTAB has rules for sealing evidence, but they are different from those in district court, like much else at the PTAB. Both parties in Google Inc. v. Summit 6 LLC, IPR2015-00806, got tripped up by them.

In district court, information designated by a party as confidential is treated as such by court until that designation is challenged by the opponent and ruled on by the judge.  … More

The New PTAB Trial Rules are Here


Just announced today — the amended PTAB Rules of trial practice (click for a copy) will be published in the Federal Register on April 1, 2016 and take effect at the end of the month.

Changes include

From the summary: “This final rule amends the existing consolidated set of rules relating to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) trial practice for IPR,… More

Patent Owners Can Get the Last Word in IPR

iStock_000065890947_SmallPTAB judges continually impress me with their scrupulous fairness. I noticed it every day of my service as an administrative patent judge and every day since. Here’s a great example of that careful attention.

The party with the burden of proof argues last, right? Well, mostly right. In IPR’s (and PGR’s and CBM’s), the Petitioner bears the ultimate burden to prove a proposition of unpatentability by a preponderance of the evidence.… More