{"id":217803,"date":"2025-05-02T00:33:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/federal-circuit-limits-use-of-applicant-admitted-prior-art-in-inter-partes-reviews\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T00:33:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:33:34","slug":"federal-circuit-limits-use-of-applicant-admitted-prior-art-in-inter-partes-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=217803","title":{"rendered":"Federal Circuit Limits Use of Applicant Admitted Prior Art in Inter Partes Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"


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As provided by statute at 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 311(b)<\/a>, a petitioner in an inter partes<\/em> review (IPR) may challenge the claims of a patent \u201conly on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or printed publications.\u201d Does this provision permit IPR challenges based on Applicant Admitted Prior Art (AAPA) \u2015 art identified in the patent as previously known \u2015 in combination with a patent or printed publication? The Federal Circuit recently announced its decision in Qualcomm Inc. v. Apple Inc<\/em>.<\/a>, clarifying that AAPA is not a \u201cpatent[] or printed publication[]\u201d under the statute, and that combining AAPA with a patent or printed publication does not shield the use of AAPA from violating 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 311(b) in a petition for IPR.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

In two separate IPR petitions, the petitioner (Apple) challenged several claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,063,674<\/a> (the \u2019674 Patent), directed to integrated circuits that use multiple power supplies. The IPR petitions cited AAPA in view of two patents, Majcherczak<\/a> and Matthews<\/a>, as Ground 2 of invalidity:<\/p>\n

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History of Appeals<\/strong><\/p>\n

In January 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board determined in a final written decision<\/a> that the \u2019674 Patent claims were unpatentable under Ground 2. The Board rejected the arguments of the patent owner (Qualcomm) that Ground 2 was \u201cnot permitted.\u201d The Board held that \u201cAAPA is admitted to be prior art and is found in the \u2019674 patent\u201d and was thus \u201cprior art consisting of patents or printed publications,\u201d and therefore qualified as prior art under \u00a7 311(b).<\/p>\n

The patent owner appealed, arguing that AAPA could not be used as a \u201cbasis\u201d for an IPR challenge, and that \u00a7 311(b) is limited to \u201cprior art consisting of patents or printed publications.\u201d While the appeal was pending, former USPTO Director Iancu published guidance<\/a> in August 2020 noting that AAPA is not \u201cprior art consisting of patents or printed publications\u201d under \u00a7 311(b), but that AAPA, \u201cif used in conjunction with\u201d other patent documents \u201cforming \u2018the basis\u2019\u201d of an IPR proceeding under \u00a7 311, could support a finding of obviousness. Nonetheless, in February 2022, the Federal Circuit vacated<\/a> the Board\u2019s ruling against the patent owner, finding that AAPA does not qualify as prior art under \u00a7 311(b) and may not form the basis of an IPR proceeding, but could be used in an IPR \u201cunder particular circumstances,\u201d and remanding back to the Board to consider whether the AAPA formed \u201cthe basis\u201d of Ground 2.<\/p>\n

In response, former USPTO Director Vidal issued superseding guidance<\/a> in June 2022 that established an \u201cin combination\u201d rule:\u00a0 \u201cBoard panels should determine whether the petition relies on admissions in the specification in combination with reliance on at least one prior art patent or printed publication\u201d and, if so, \u201cthose admissions do not form \u2018the basis\u2019 of the ground and must be considered by the Board in its patentability analysis.\u201d Applying this superseding guidance, the Board again found in a second final written decision on remand<\/a> that the challenged claims of the \u2019674 patent were unpatentable under Ground 2 because petitioner did not use AAPA to form the \u201cbasis\u201d of Ground 2.<\/p>\n

The patent owner once again appealed to the Federal Circuit. In its recent decision of April 23, 2025, the Federal Circuit found<\/a> that the plain meaning of \u00a7 311(b) limits the basis<\/em> of an IPR proceeding to only prior art patents or printed publications, and that AAPA cannot be used, alone or in combination with prior art patents or printed publications, as the basis for instituting an IPR. The Federal Circuit acknowledged that AAPA may be used to provide general background knowledge without violating \u00a7 311(b) and may be relied upon<\/em><\/strong> in combination with prior art patents or printed publications\u2014just not as the basis.<\/p>\n

Since the Board had already rejected petitioner\u2019s Ground 1 argument for invalidity of the \u2019674 patent claims, and no other grounds remained, the Federal Circuit reversed, noting that the Board should have instead found that the challenged claims are not unpatentable.<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While AAPA may be relied on<\/em><\/strong> in an IPR, it is critical for litigants to ensure that AAPA is not used to form the basis<\/em><\/strong> of the IPR. This clarification of \u00a7 311(b) by the Federal Circuit will ultimately require a higher threshold for challenging patents in IPRs. In order to avoid early dismissals, IPR petitions should be clear in how AAPA is being used, including identifying only printed patents and publications as the grounds for petitions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As provided by statute at 35 U.S.C. \u00a7 311(b), a petitioner in an inter partes review (IPR) may challenge the claims of a patent \u201conly on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or printed publications.\u201d Does this provision permit IPR challenges based on Applicant Admitted Prior Art (AAPA) \u2015 art identified in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[82183,52058,1885,3023,11558,60787,11030,82184,12906,3698],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-217803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","tag-admitted","tag-applicant","tag-art","tag-circuit","tag-federal","tag-inter","tag-limits","tag-partes","tag-prior","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\nFederal Circuit Limits Use of Applicant Admitted Prior Art in Inter Partes Reviews - 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