In the days immediately following SAS Institute Inc. v.
Iancu, 138 S. Ct. 1348, 200 L. Ed. 2d 695, 126 U.S.P.Q.2d
1307, 86 U.S.L.W. 4252 (2018), the blogosphere was full of
Jeremiads predicting that the panels of administrative patent
judges handling inter partes reviews (IPRs) would be
unable to decide all of the issues being foisted on them within the
18 months maximum given to them — by 35 U.S.C. § 36(11)
— let alone within the ''normal'' maximum of
a year.
As a longtime practitioner before the board in patent
interferences, and given my belief that IPRs are somewhat
simplified versions of the first phase of patent interferences
(i.e., what is commonly referred to as ''the motions
phase''), those Jeremiads seemed to me to be overwrought,
if not downright hysterical. The interference section of the board
has long faced (and, in my experience, largely complied with) the
following mandate imposed by 37 C.F.R. § 41.200(c):
