Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee (579 U.S. 261)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 20, 2016 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 579 U.S. 261 · 136 S. Ct. 2131
- Decided
- June 20, 2016
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 6–2
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, 35 U.S.C. § 100 et seq., creates a process called "inter partes review." That review process allows a third party to ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reexamine the claims in an already-issued patent and to cancel any claim that the agency finds to be unpatentable in light of prior art. See § 102 (requiring "novel[ty]"); § 103 (disqualifying claims that are "obvious"). We consider two provisions of the Act. The first says: "No Appeal.-The determination by the Director [of the Patent Office] whether to institute an inter partes review under this section shall be final and non-appealable." § 314(d). Does this provision bar a court from considering whether the Patent Office wrongly "determin[ed] ... to institute an inter partes review," ibid., when it did so on grounds not specifically mentioned in a third party's review request? The second provision grants the Patent Office the authority to issue "regulations ... establishing and governing inter partes review under this chapter." § 316(a)(4). Does this provision authorize the Patent Office to issue a regulation stating that the agency, in inter partes review, "shall [construe a patent claim according to] its broadest reasonable construction in light of the specification of the patent in which it appears"? 37 CFR § 42.100(b) (2015).…
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