By Dennis Crouch
In 2013, the USPTO will open its doors to a new form of administrative patent challenge – the post-grant review. Starting on September 16 of this year, however, the USPTO will begin hearing a limited form of post-grant review proceedings directed to finance related business method patents as part of the Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents. The enabling statute (the AIA) provides for a broad scope of challenge – any reason that could serve as an invalidity defense under 35 U.S.C. § 282(b)(2) or (b)(3) (as re-formatted in the AIA). The AIA re-formatted Section 282(b)(2)-(3) is written as follows:
282(b) The following shall be defenses in any action involving the validity or infringement of a patent and shall be pleaded:. . .
(2) Invalidity of the patent or any claim in suit on any ground specified in part II as a condition for patentability.
(3) Invalidity of the patent or any claim in suit for failure to comply with—
(A) any requirement of section 112, except that the failure to disclose the best mode shall not be a basis on which any claim of a patent may be canceled or held invalid or otherwise unenforceable; or
(B) any requirement of section 251.
In his recent essay, Professor David Hricik explained his position that Section 101 challenges likely do not qualify as defenses under 282[(b)]. The basic gist of his argument is that the requirements of Sections 102 (anticipation & statutory bars) & 103 (obviousness) of the Patent Act are clearly "specified … as condition[s] for patentability" and thus their embedded doctrines qualify as defenses under Section 282(b)(2). However, a fair reading the statute would not lead us to identify the of the subject matter eligibility doctrines housed in Section 101 as ones specified within the statute as conditions for patentability. Hricik writes:
[T]he important point, again, is that Congress deliberately thought about what should be invalidity defenses, and what should not, and left out 101 not just as a "condition of patentability," but also in [the third]paragraph, where it "caught" some strays. It left out 101. That says a lot.
In his post, Hricik focused solely on litigation issues. However, the scope of the new post grant review system also stems from Section 282 (as discussed above). Thus, if Professor Hricik is correct, then lack of subject matter eligibility (under Section 101) would also fail as a proper post-grant review challenge. Now, the USPTO disagrees with this analysis and has issued final rules indicating that Section 101 challenges will be permitted. Although these rules could be challenged (See Tafas v. Dudas) the AIA does not permit any appeal of the USPTO's decision or grant or deny a PGR request. The House Judiciary Committee report also suggests that it intended for the PGR proceeding to be open to Section 101 challenges as did statements of Senator Kyl. That said, the passage of the AIA is unlikely to be seen as expanding the scope of 282 – as such, current Congressional commentary on the meaning of the statute is unlikely to impact its meaning.
Professor Mark Lemley suggested the potential that a 101 eligibility issues are essentially threshold jurisdictional questions – rather than Section 282 defenses. This fits with the thinking of some current Federal Circuit Judges (such as Judge Mayer and Dyk) who have no problem raising eligibility questions sua sponte on appeal. However, under this explanation, a Section 101 challenge would still be excluded from post-grant review precisely because it is not a Section 282 defense.
