Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, December 7, 2015, will be a discussion of the following:

MCM Portfolio LLC v. Hewlett-Packard Co., (Fed. Cir. December 2, 2015) (available here).  MCM appealed a determination by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that HP’s petition for inter partes review of MCM’s 7,162,549 patent for “coupling a computer system with a flash memory storage system” demonstrated a reasonably likelihood that the challenged claims were invalid.  In particular, MCM asserted that inter partes review was time-barred by 35 U.S.C. 315(b) and that the inter partes review process itself violated Article III of the U.S. Constitution and the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Federal Circuit found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the decision to institute the inter parties review, but that it did have jurisdiction to review the constitutional issues.  On that front, the Federal Circuit held that the inter partes review process does not violate the U.S. Constitution.  Finally, the Federal Circuit agreed with the substance of the Board’s obviousness determination finding that the asserted claims were obvious.

Changes to the FRCP, discussed here:

Significant Changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Expected to Take Effect December 1, 2015: Practical Implications and What Litigators Need to Know (Jones Day) Includes a good discussion of the changes and their implications.