Restoring the America Invents Act

Restoring the America Invents Act

This bill modifies various provisions related to administrative patent validity review proceedings conducted before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), a body within the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

For example, the bill

• expands the scope of inter partes reviews (IPRs), one type of such review proceedings, by allowing challenges to a patent's validity based on statutory or obviousness-type double patenting grounds;
• authorizes the PTO director to review, modify, or set aside final PTAB decisions;
• authorizes governmental entities to file IPRs and post-grant reviews (PGRs), a related type of patent review proceeding;
• requires the PTO to institute an IPR (i.e., a decision to proceed with the full IPR proceeding) if there's a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner will prevail, subject to limited exceptions;
• establishes in statute factors for a court to consider when deciding a request to stay a patent infringement lawsuit involving a patent subject to a pending IPR or PGR;
• modifies provisions related to the joinder of parties and handling of multiple proceedings involving the same patent before the PTO; and
• modifies provisions relating to the time limitation for filing an IPR, including by establishing that a lawsuit dismissed without prejudice does not trigger the time limitation (generally, a petitioner wishing to file an IPR must do so within one year of being served a lawsuit alleging infringement of the patent).