When the America Invents Act legislation was first proposed, many thought its broad estoppel provisions might be a deterrent for parties considering post-grant proceedings. The high success rate for petitioners in inter partes reviews has lessened would-be petitioners' concerns about the risks of estoppel, and the volume of IPR petitions continues to grow. There also has been some clarity from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and the district courts about the scope of the estoppel provisions, which provides some good news for petitioners. In this article, Finnegan attorneys Barbara Clarke McCurdy and Arpita Bhattacharrya discuss recent decisions that shed some light on the scope of the AIA estoppel provisions.
Previously published by Law360.
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