SCOTUS Patent Scorecard Update

On June 10, 2019, the Supreme Court issued Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service.

Return Mail holds that “a federal agency is not a ‘person’ who may petition for post-issuance review” of a patent under the America Invents Act of 2011.  More specifically, a federal agency cannot challenge the validity of a patent’s claims through an inter partes review, post-grant review or covered business method review before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Return Mail is pro-patent because it eliminates a class of patent challengers before the PTAB. 

Return Mail is not pro-patent-quality.  Because patent quality has been and is an important matter, perhaps Congress will respond to Return Mail when or if it addresses patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101.    

In the past 14 years, the Supreme Court has issued 37 patent decisions. The tally: 20 decisions are not pro-patent; 9 decisions are pro-patent; and 8 decisions are patent neutral.