Insights

Los Angeles, CA – December 14, 2021: Harley-Davidson, Inc. and AEA Bridges Impact Corp. (ABIC), a special purpose acquisition company with a dedicated sustainability focus, announced on December 12 that they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement under which ABIC will combine with LiveWire, Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle division, to create a new publicly traded company. Crowell & Moring advised Kymco Capital and Kwang Yang Motor Co. Ltd. (KYMCO) in its strategic investment in LiveWire.

Starting in June 2021, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) instituted a policy to allow for the Director of the USPTO to review certain decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued in inter partes reviews (IPRs) and post grant reviews (PGRs).  That process, known as Director Review, was created in response to the decision in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., whereby the Supreme Court held that final written decisions of administrative patent judges in IPR proceedings must be subject to the review of the Director of the USPTO before they become the decisions of the agency.  141 S. Ct. 1970 (2021).

A petition for Inter Partes Review (IPR) kicks off an IPR proceeding, and is required to set forth the grounds of invalidity and how the claim terms should be construed. In the precedential opinion Axonics, Inc. v. Medtronic, Inc., the Federal Circuit held that if the patent owner proposes, or the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) adopts, a claim construction that is different from the construction proposed by the petitioner, the petitioner should be given an opportunity to present invalidity arguments and evidence under the new construction. In responding to the new claim construction, however, the petitioner is limited to the prior art of record, and it may not rely upon new prior art references. The Federal Circuit left open whether the petitioner may rely upon different embodiments in a previously cited reference.

Although the Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s (PTAB) reliance on Fintiv to deny petitions for Inter Partes Review (IPR) has waned since Kathi Vidal was named Director of the USPTO and the advent of Sotera stipulations, these so-called Fintiv denials remain the subject of intense scrutiny by the patent bar. On March 13, 2023, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals revived a challenge to the PTAB’s practice of discretionary denials under Fintiv, allowing it to proceed before the district court.[1] This revival will no doubt be welcomed by patent challengers who dislike the PTAB’s current practice under Fintiv.