USPTO post-grant proceedings, including inter partes review, post-grant review, and covered business method challenges, have fundamentally altered how patent disputes are fought across both the PTAB and federal court. Petition timing, dual-track litigation, estoppel consequences, and Federal Circuit doctrine all demand careful coordination from the moment a case begins. Chris Kao, Pillsbury Law, brings extensive experience litigating CBM and IPR proceedings before the PTAB to an examination of how these shifts affect counsel on both sides of a dispute. Institution decisions now flow through the USPTO Director rather than PTAB panels, proposed rules impose new mandatory denial provisions, and the procedural steps that once defined standard IPR practice can no longer be assumed.
The Intellectual Property Law Section is chaired by Adrian Cyhan.