Lessons Learned: Director Emphasizes Patent Quality in Evaluating General Plastic Factors,PTAB Litigation Blog
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In the precedential decision Gen. Plastic Indus. Co. v. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, IPR2016-01357, Paper 19 (PTAB Sept. 6, 2017), the PTAB articulated seven non-exclusive factors to be considered before discretionarily denying a subsequent IPR petition challenging the same patent. Director Vidal recently revisited the General Plastic factors after initiating sua sponte Director review of the Board’s decisions to discretionarily deny certain petitions. See Code200, UAB, et al. v. Bright Data Ltd., IPR2022-00861 and IPR2022-00862, Paper 18 (PTAB Aug. 23, 2022) (Vidal Decision), at 6 (quoting Cuozzo Speed Techs., LLC v. Lee, 579 U.S. 261, 272 (2016) (quoting H.R. Rep. No. 112-98, pt. 1, at 45, 48) (hereinafter, “Code200”). Based on the Director’s review and resulting decision, she vacated and remanded the Board decisions for further consideration, and affirmed “the Board’s mission ‘to improve patent quality and restore confidence in the presumption of validity that comes with issued patents.’”
