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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Last week, I filed an amicus brief in <i>Apple v. Vidal</i> that might be interesting to those of you that are
interested in administrative law.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">In 2018, Director Iancu tried to recalibrate standards for
instituting IPRs and PGRs by specifying factors for \u201cdiscretionary denial\u201d of
institution.<span> </span>That much is all well and
good: agency heads can make rules like this to guide the discretion of agency
employees. <span> </span>The Administrative Procedure
Act says that the way to do that is to publish a notice in the Federal
Register.<span> </span>5 U.S.C. § 552(a).<span> </span>Other agencies issue this kind of guidance about
1000 times per year.<span> </span>But for some reason
the PTO doesn\u2019t want to do it that way.<span>
</span>(In the brief, I note that the effect is evasion of oversight under the
Paperwork Reduction Act, Regulatory Flexibility Act, and several executive
orders.<span> </span>Of course I have no
knowledge of subjective intent.<span> </span>But the effect
smoke from the intent gun is pretty hard to miss.)</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Instead, the PTO\u2019s lawyers misled Director Iancu and advised
him to invent a non-statutory end run: PTAB \u201cprecedential decisions\u201d with the
Director sitting as one APJ on the panel (the infamous \u201cPrecedential Opinion
Panel\u201d or POP). <span> </span>In the very first such decision,
I filed an amicus brief warning that the PTAB was violating the law and
building on a foundation of sand.<span> </span><a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=3836861" target="_blank" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">https://ssrn.com/abstract=3836861</a>.<span> </span>Nonetheless, the PTAB ignored me and went
ahead with its illegal extrastatutory creation.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The most controversial of POP decisions has been <i>Apple Inc. v. Fintiv Inc.</i>, which sets forth
factors to be considered in discretionary denials of IPRs and PGRs.<span> </span>The big users of IPRs/PGRs\u2014namely, the big
techs and Unified Patents\u2014aren\u2019t fans of anything that gets in the way of IPRs
and PGRs.<span> </span>So, unsurprisingly, they\u2019ve
been attacking <i>Fintiv</i> for years.<span> </span>They made several false starts, challenging
through paths of review that any administrative law lawyer would have advised
against.<span> </span>After wasted years and millions
of dollars, the big techs finally followed the proper path of review, and the
case is now at the Federal Circuit.<span> </span>And
now they\u2019re wrong on the merits.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">My brief explains that both the appellants and the PTO are
half right and 100% wrong.<span> My goal is to get the PTO to follow the same law that all other agencies follow. </span>For your
reading delight, it\u2019s at <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=5016833">https://ssrn.com/abstract=5016833</a></span></font></p>
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