At the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) there is a live proceeding that is simply called an oral hearing. During the hearing, each side has a limited amount of time to present their arguments to the PTAB judges; it's typically about an hour per side, which means attorneys must use the hour wisely. When clients hear about the PTAB proceedings as being trials they tend to imagine a sort of Perry Mason courtroom-style experience that is similar to the process that takes place in district court litigation.
Instead, PTAB oral hearings involve an intense probing of technical and legal issues by a very active three judge panel. For that reason, considerable planning is required to make sure that each argument before the judges is effective. It's oftentimes beneficial to have multiple lawyers argue at the PTAB oral hearing, especially because it's important to ensure the oral argument transcript is complete. For example, in certain situations an attorney may be confronted with a question that relates to a specific aspect of the case. It's important for the attorney with the strongest knowledge to respond to the question before the PTAB.
At Ropes & Gray we strategize about issues that could arise at an early time in a PTAB matter, especially those that have a likelihood of arising later. In short, oral arguments before the PTAB require a great deal of preparation. These arguments are a focal point of the entire case.
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