Pending Supreme Court PTAB Cases (Video)

Scott McKeown, Ropes & Gray IP litigation partner and chair of the firm's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) group, discusses potential impacts of pending Supreme Court PTAB cases, Oil States and SAS Institute.

In Oil States, the question is whether or not the PTAB is constitutional, given it is a bench trial with administrative patent judges, as opposed to what happens in the district court, where the bench trial is an option and the jury trial is also an option. That option is not available at the PTAB. If the Court should decide that the PTAB, as an Article I court, cannot look at these patent disputes because these patent disputes are private rights that only a jury can weigh in on as an opinion in the district court, then presumably the PTAB could be shut down. On the other hand, what I think many are expecting is a more reasoned opinion from the Court, explaining where patents fall in the realm of public rights versus privates rights. And perhaps the