In Law360 and Bloomberg Law, Scott McKeown Examines Federal Watchdog Report on PTAB Judges’ Independence
In Law360 and Bloomberg Law articles, IP litigation partner and PTAB chair Scott McKeown discussed a Government Accountability Office preliminary report that found two-thirds of Patent Trial and Appeal Board judges who responded to a survey said they felt pressured to modify their decisions on America Invents Act reviews, and that 75% felt the oversight of superiors affected their independence.
Scott explains that the intervention of management appears to be about ensuring uniformity in the board's patent validity decisions rather than dictating results. He notes an open question is whether the new policy statement that management will not be involved in the board's decisions before they are issued should that be codified into legislation, in case the next PTAB director decides to go back to the old system.