PTAB Issue Joinder Practices to End
As
I predicted a few weeks back, the Patent Trial & Appeal
Board is now moving Proppant Express Investments, LLC,
Proppant Express Solutions, LLC v. Oren Technologies, LLC,
(IPR2018-00914)
to the Precedential Opinion Panel (POP). This is the first case
to be taken up by the new POP.
As a reminder, in Proppant a divided panel
denied issue joinder under 315(c), explaining that the
statutory language precluded "join[ing] new issues to an
existing proceeding whether raised by the same petitioner or a
different petitioner." The Board noted the conflict this
decision present with earlier decisions on the topic (known to many
as the "panel stacking" decisions).