Patent Office Ignores Federal Circuit, and Gets Away with It

In Biodelivery Sciences International, Inc., v. Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc., [2019-1643, 2019-1644, 2019-1645] (January 13, 2020) the Federal Circuit declined to rehear this appeal en banc. The Federal Circuit earlier remanded IPR2015-00165, IPR2015-00168, and IPR2015-00169 for the PTAB to consider all claims as required by the Supreme Court in SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu, 138 S. Ct. 1348 (2018). The PTAB failed to do so, and the panel on the resulting appeal allowed them to do so.  Judge Newman wrote separately in dissent “because of the significance of the balance of agency and judicial authority, and the rules of procedural law in the administrative state.”