Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Voluminous Petition and Supporting Exhibits Warrant Denial of Inter Partes Review

The Board denied institution of inter partes review of a digital rights management patent because the petition and supporting exhibits were too voluminous to permit a just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution of the proceeding. "The Director requires us to apply our trial rules 'to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution of every proceeding.' 37 C.F.R. § 42.1. No such proceeding could be secured with the record presented to us by Petitioner. . . . The [petitioner's expert's] declaration is 342 pages, includes voluminous information not relevant to this Petition, and contains numerous self-citations. The Petition includes sixty-one exhibits totaling 30,298 pages. Petitioner asserts that all exhibits are relied upon in the Petition. Fifty-one of the exhibits, however, are not cited in the Petition. The Office Patent Trial Practice Guide cautions that petitioners should 'avoid submitting a repository of all the information that a judge could possibly consider, and instead focus on concise, well-organized, easy-to-follow arguments supported by readily identifiable evidence of record.' The Petition widely misses that mark."

Petition for Inter Partes Review by Apple Inc., IPR2015-00356 (PTAB June 26, 2015, Order) (Perry, APJ)

No comments: