PREVAIL Act Archives

Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Advances Two Patent Reform Bills

by Christopher M. Bruno | Dec 5, 2024 | Patents

This post has been updated since its original publication date.

On November 15, 2024, the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property advanced the Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement (IDEA) Act, one of three significant bills it considered this year to reform the patent system. On November 21, 2024, that same subcommittee advanced the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act. No action has been taken by the subcommittee yet regarding the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA). It is unlikely any of these bills will become law before the new Congress begins on January 3, 2025.

The IDEA Act, sponsored by Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and garnering bipartisan support, would require the US Patent & Trademark Office to seek demographic data from patent inventors residing in the United States on a voluntary basis. The bill also includes safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the collected information and ensure it is not used as part of the examination process, with a report to be submitted to Congress biannually.

By the time of the November 21 action, the subcommittee sent the PREVAIL Act, sponsored by Senators Christopher Coons (D-DE) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), to the full US Senate. In the words of Coons, the PREVAIL Act is intended to make proceedings before the Patent Trial & Appeal Board “cheaper, swifter, more efficient alternatives to federal district court.” The PREVAIL Act would enact substantial changes to post-grant and inter partes review proceedings at the Board, including by introducing a standing requirement, aligning standards more closely with district court standards, and strengthening estoppel provisions to prevent re-litigation of validity issues.

The substance of PERA and the PREVAIL Act have been reported on previously here and here, respectively. PERA would revise the standards related to patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, which have been broadly criticized as providing insufficient predictability and certainty. PERA would overturn Supreme Court precedent by establishing specific categories of exceptions to broad patent eligibility for inventions or discoveries.

At the November 15 hearing, Coons and Tillis explained that they continue to receive feedback on PERA, which has been unsuccessfully introduced in previous years. Coons and Tillis both telegraphed optimism that PERA was moving toward being voted out of the subcommittee. After the November 21 hearing, both sponsors indicated that they hoped PERA would be voted on soon.

Status Quo Has Few Defenders at PREVAIL Act Senate Subcommittee Hearing

by Christopher M. Bruno and Ian J. Howard | Nov 16, 2023 | America Invents Act, Patents

On November 8, 2023, the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property heard testimony from four witnesses on the proposed Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act. Although the PREVAIL Act includes several provisions regarding transparency and independence, its thrust is its dramatic alteration of Patent Trial & Appeal Board post-grant review (PGR) and inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, including their relationship to co-pending district court litigation, with the goal of incentivizing innovation by reducing costs and making such challenges less likely to be successful.

We previously reported on the provisions of the proposed PREVAIL Act when it was introduced. The biggest changes under consideration include the introduction of a standing requirement, a heightened burden of proof from preponderance-of-the-evidence to clear-and-convincing evidence, a stronger estoppel to thwart costly and unnecessary co-pending actions in court and at the Board, and the separation of the Board’s institution and decision-making functions.

Three witnesses spoke in favor of the PREVAIL Act before the subcommittee, emphasizing that the Board failed to live up to the purposes and intentions of the America Invents Act (AIA). These witnesses were Representative Lamar Smith, a co-sponsor of the AIA; Michelle Armond, co-founder of the law firm Armond Wilson LLP and a practitioner before the Board; and Joseph Kiani, founder of Masimo Industries.

Smith testified that Congress enacted the AIA because it recognized the potential for Board proceedings to be abused, and according to Smith, that is exactly what has happened. Each of the three witnesses testified that well-funded litigants have exploited Board procedures to overwhelm small businesses by forcing them into expensive duplicative proceedings in multiple forums. For example, Kiani posited that the Board posed an existential threat to startups, attributing findings of invalidity against his company’s patents to the AIA’s invalidation-friendly procedures.

Armond explained to the subcommittee how the PREVAIL Act would streamline Board proceedings and harmonize them with district court and International Trade Commission (ITC) litigation. According to Armond, in the wake of the AIA, both the Board and district courts have failed to offer uniform standards for deciding whether to stay a proceeding in their forum pending resolution of a parallel proceeding in the other. The PREVAIL Act would resolve this problem by requiring litigants to select only one forum in which they may raise their invalidity arguments. Armond argued that using the same clear-and-convincing-evidence standard in Board review proceedings and other litigation would harmonize the Board with district courts and the ITC by ensuring that different forums reach the same invalidity decision.

Joseph Matal, former US Patent & Trademark Office interim director and acting solicitor, and current principal of Clear IP, LLC, was the lone dissenting witness at the hearing. According to Matal, the PREVAIL Act’s proposal to require a clear-and-convincing-evidence standard in Board review proceedings is misguided because Board judges possess the requisite agency expertise to second-guess patent examination decisions. Additionally, Board judges often have more time to evaluate the patents and more information than the examiner. According to Matal, [...]

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Coons and Tillis Introduce Two Bills Intended to Change Patent Landscape

by Christopher M. Bruno | Jul 13, 2023 | Patents

In late June 2023, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced two bills in Congress that, if enacted, would change the patent adjudication landscape:

The Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act is the latest iteration of a multiyear effort to reform patent law to address perceived problems with the Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR) processes.
The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023 seeks to bring certainty to subject matter eligibility Section 101 jurisprudence.

The PREVAIL Act is essentially a reintroduction of the previously unsuccessful STRONGER Patents Act of 2019 bill and would change fundamental aspects of how the Board operates. Under current practice, the Board judges who rules on institution and also decides the outcome of an instituted proceeding. Under the PREVAIL Act, institution decisions would be made by a separate set of judges from those that render a decision on a petition’s merits. Through proposed changes to the initiation and estoppel provisions, a patent challenger could bring its attack on patent validity in either the district court or the Board, but not both. And as part of the harmonization of district court and Board proceedings, the PREVAIL Act would adopt the “clear and convincing” standard for Board review and codify existing Board practice of applying the same claim construction standard as district courts apply.

The PREVAIL Act would also change who can bring issues to the Board by imposing standing and revised real-party-in-interest requirements. An IPR petitioner would have to establish standing equivalent to that required for a district court declaratory judgment action. Moreover, anyone who financially contributes to an IPR would be deemed a real party in interest to avoid multiple petitions backed by the same entity. To reduce the multiplicity of proceedings, the PREVAIL Act would establish a presumption against a joinder for time-barred petitions. The PREVAIL Act also includes several provisions directed to the independence and transparency of the Board’s decision-making, including establishing a code of conduct and requiring recordation of the Director’s actions that affect Board proceedings.

Turning to subject matter eligibility, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act would overrule Supreme Court decisions importing a judicial exception to Section 101 and would codify many of the existing categories of ineligible subject matter, including mathematical formulae; substantially economic, financial, social, cultural and artistic practices (in other words, fundamental human activity); natural processes and products made independent of human activity; and mental processes. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act specifically would authorize early resolution and limited discovery on Section 101 ineligibility.

Practice Note: Although both acts have been introduced before without much success, Congress’s present focus on technology (such as artificial intelligence) may serve to propel one or both bills forward. Of course, it remains to be seen whether Congress has an appetite for modifying patent law, particularly in the lead-up to an election year.