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Sending Out an SAS: Analyzing the <i>SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu</i> Decision

By Richard Hung and Rachel Silverman Dolphin
June 01, 2018

In a 5-4 decision, with four justices dissenting, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)'s practice of instituting review on only a subset of an inter partes review (IPR) petitioner's validity challenges. SAS Inst., Inc. v. Iancu, –U.S.–, 200 L.Ed.2d 695, 700 (2018) (SAS).

The case turned on the statutory interpretation of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The specific statute at issue, 35 U.S.C. §318(a), provides: “If an inter partes review is instituted and not dismissed under this chapter, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board shall issue a final written decision with respect to the patentability of any patent claim challenged by the petitioner and any new claim added under section 316(d).”

The question in SAS was whether the PTAB's final written decision must address all patent claims in a petition or whether the PTAB has discretion to only institute review on certain claims (meaning the final written decision would address only those).

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