Joined PTAB Parties & CAFC Appeal Rights

Statutory Right to Appeal for Joined Parties

In Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Research Corp. Technologies, Inc., (here) the Federal Circuit held that parties joined to an IPR petition have a statutory right of appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 319 as "parties", even if the original petitioner lacks Article III standing for appeal.

In Mylan, Argentum Pharmaceuticals filed the initial IPR petition challenging one of Research Corporation Technologies' ("RCT") epilepsy treatment patents. After the PTAB instituted review, Mylan, Breckenridge, and Alembic filed their own petitions for review, as well as motions for joinder. Each joined party had been sued for infringement of the challenged patent over a year before they filed their petitions. The PTAB instituted the petitions and granted the motions for joinder (in accordance with the joinder exception to the one-year bar), but limited the joined parties to an "understudy" role.