USPTO Proposes Change In Claim Construction Standard For Post-Grant Proceedings

Since the enactment of the America Invents Act in September 2012, the USPTO has evaluated a patent's validity in post-grant proceedings¹ with a broader claim construction standard than used by federal District Courts. The USPTO's use of this broader standard may have contributed to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's (PTAB's) tendency to invalidate patents more often than District Courts.

At present, the claim construction standard that is used in post-grant proceedings is as follows:

A claim in an unexpired patent that will not expire before a final written decision is issued shall be given its broadest reasonable construction in light of the specification of the patent in which it appears.²