Many things in life are better done with someone else: board
games, dinner parties, road trips, riding tandem bicycles. However,
according to the PTAB, there's one particular area where
it's best to fly solo: two people should not provide one
declaration in an IPR. In CSL Behring GMBH v. Shire Viropharma
Inc. (IPR2017-01512), the PTAB denied institution in
large part because the petitioner submitted a joint declaration to
support that one of its references was a printed publication.
The declaration was signed by two individuals, one doctor and
one "Director of Medical Affairs," both of whom attended
a 2012 conference. They jointly declared that the conference was
attended by "nearly 5,000 physicians," that the reference
poster at issue was displayed, that the authors were present to
answer questions about the reference, that an abstract was
published prior to the meeting, and that handouts of the reference
were available at the conference. These facts fairly track
