BIO and AUTM Amicus Brief in Cuozzo Speed Technologies LLC v. Michelle Lee

The questions presented in this case implicate two of the foundational legal conclusions that have allowed the PTAB, even in a relatively short time, to cut a remarkable swath through the ranks of issued patents with barely a light tap on the brakes by the Federal Circuit. First, the Federal Circuit has held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) may invalidate patents by construing their claims in a way that would never be used in an infringement case in district court, and then finding that artificially broad interpretation too broad to be patentable. Second, the Federal Circuit has held that the PTAB may invalidate patents in an IPR without any court ever being permitted to review whether the PTAB has violated the procedural limitations on its cancellation authority that Congress wrote into the America Invents Act. BIO, AUTM, and their members have a substantial interest in the Court’s resolution of those questions.