Since the Inter Partes Review ("IPR") procedure under the America Invents Act ("AIA") became available in September 2012, the PTO has provided a new procedure to adjudicate the validity of a patent claim. As evidenced by the early and rapid adoption of IPRs, companies are seeing advantages to using these proceedings. Because most of the patents that are involved in an IPR are also asserted in district court litigation, both plaintiffs and defendants have had to factor IPR proceedings into their district court litigation strategies. T his article reviews circumstances where parties have had both a district court litigation and an IPR proceeding(s) involving the same patent or patents, and describes some early trends with respect to the impact of an IPR on resolution of disputes.
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Originally published by Intellectual Property Today, January 2015
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
