Introduction to PTAB Practice

• Author: Erika Harmon Arner - Kathleen A. Daley - Michael J. Flibbert
• Pages: 1-10

When the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) was signed into law on

September 16, 2011, it created a new practice in patent law—patent trials

before a newly created Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) within the US

Patent and Trademark Ofce (Ofce). This chapter discusses the essential

framework of the PTAB and the patent trial proceedings before the PTAB.

A. Legal Authority and Regulations

1. Statutor y Provisions1

The AIA amended 35 U.S.C. §6 to establish the PTAB, or Board, which

includes the Director, the Deputy Director, the Commissioners for Patents

and Trademarks, and the Administrative Patent Judges (APJs), and which

replaces the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI).2 Those on

the Board, particularly the APJs, are persons skilled in patent matters.3

*The authors thank James Eaton, Michael Galgano, Christina Ji-Hye, Matthew Karas,

Tyler Latcham, Maureen Queler, Erin Sommers, Paul Townsend, and Christina Yang for their

assistance with this book.

1. All citations to Title 35 of the United States Code are to the 2006 edition, Supplement

5 (2011), in effect as of January 3, 2012, as amended by the Leahy-Smith America Invents

Act, Pub. L. No. 112-29 (2011) and the AIA Technical Corrections Act, Pub. L. No. 112-274

(2013), unless noted otherwise.

2. 35 U.S.C. §6(a).

3. Id.

1

Chapter 1

Introduction to PTAB Practice*

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