CAFC Partially Relaxes IdleFree Requirements For Amendments During IPR

Today in Nike v. Adidas (Fed. Cir. 2016), the Federal Circuit partially relaxed the hurdle for a patent owner to amend claims during an IPR or other AIA proceeding. This follows the PTAB's own earlier partial relaxation of the hurdle for patent owners to amend in its Masterimage decision (featured in an earlier post: "What Is the Latest on Amendments in PTAB Proceedings?"), in which the PTAB found that patent owners need not show patentability over all prior art in the universe, but only that known to the patentee. In today's Nike decision, the court found that it was error for the PTAB to have denied entry of Nike's amendment on the basis that Nike provided a conclusory statement that the proposed claims were patentable over prior art known to the patentee. The court stated: "we cannot see how the statement used by Nike would be inadequate, absent an allegation of conduct violating the duty of candor. We therefore conclude that this was an improper ground on which