Restoring the America Invents Act
This bill modifies various provisions related to administrative patent validity review proceedings conducted before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), a body within the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).
For example, the bill
- expands the scope of inter partes reviews (IPRs), one type of such review proceedings, by allowing challenges to a patent's validity based on statutory or obviousness-type double patenting grounds;
- authorizes the PTO director to review, modify, or set aside final PTAB decisions;
- authorizes governmental entities to file IPRs and post-grant reviews (PGRs), a related type of patent review proceeding;
- requires the PTO to institute an IPR (i.e., a decision to proceed with the full IPR proceeding) if there's a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner will prevail, subject to limited exceptions;
- establishes in statute factors for a court to consider when deciding a request to stay a patent infringement lawsuit involving a patent subject to a pending IPR or PGR;
- modifies provisions related to the joinder of parties and handling of multiple proceedings involving the same patent before the PTO; and
- modifies provisions relating to the time limitation for filing an IPR, including by establishing that a lawsuit dismissed without prejudice does not trigger the time limitation (generally, a petitioner wishing to file an IPR must do so within one year of being served a lawsuit alleging infringement of the patent).