Spotlight On Upcoming Oral Arguments – March 2019

Collabo Innovations, Inc. v. Sony Corporation, No. 18-1311, Courtroom 402

In this appeal, the Federal Circuit has been asked to consider the constitutionality of IPR’s when applied to patents that issued after enactment, but before the effective date, of the AIA—an issue left open by the Supreme Court in its Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group decision.  Collabo filed the application for the patent-at-issue more than a year before Congress enacted the AIA. The USPTO later issued the patent in the period between enactment of the AIA and the effective date of IPRs under the AIA.

Collabo argues that the application of IPRs to patents that issued before the effective date of the AIA is unconstitutional because Congress may only retroactively apply amendments to patent laws where the amendment expands the rights of patent owners.  Collabo contends that the more lenient preponderance of the evidence standard and lack of presumption of validity in