The Supreme Court Just Overhauled the U.S. Patent Regime. Here's What It Means.

[Polybius]

Source: Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court reined in the power of patent judges on Monday, finding the lack of ability to review their decisions inconsistent with their status as “inferior officers” under the Constitution.

Written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the ruling spells an overhaul of the U.S. patent regime. The majority ruling finds that the decisions of some 250 administrative patent judges will have to be reviewable by the director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in order to pass constitutional muster under the Appointments Clause.

As Chief Justice Roberts noted in the ruling, a single patent ruling can have multibillion-dollar ripples.

The ruling drew a scathing dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas, who found uncommon company with the court’s left flank: Steven Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.


Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/the-supreme-court-just-overhauled-the-u-s-patent-regime-heres-what-it-means/?utm_source=mostpopular

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Interesting how Thomas sided with the liberals...

[3Hotdogs]

1. Ya mean, somebody woke Thomas up?

[lastlib]

8. Clarence Thomas, woke---

THAT's a concept in itself!! - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Dawson Leery]

2. kick for more exposure.

IP law is very complicated and nuanced. I'll need to read it more than once.

[lagomorph777]

3. There have been some very crazy patent rulings over the years.

More review sounds like a good idea.

[stillcool]

4. "a single patent can have multibillion-dollar ripples"

for who?

[Lonestarblue]

5. Pharmaceutical industry, for one.

They change one minor ingredient slightly and then re-patent to protect against generics.

[stillcool]

6. reminds me of this ruling the other day...

predicated on money, but I guess everything is.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/06/15/louisiana-judge-blocks-biden-administrations-oil-gas-leasing-pause/
A federal judge in Louisiana on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction to block the Biden administration’s policy of pausing the sale of new oil and gas leases on federal land while reviewing how to reform the program.
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“Millions and possibly billions of dollars are at stake,” Doughty wrote in his ruling. “Local government funding, jobs for Plaintiff State workers, and funds for the restoration of Louisiana’s Coastline are at stake.”

Environmental groups promised to fight the decision and said the Biden administration has the authority to pause the leasing program. .

“The judge’s order turns a blind eye to runaway climate pollution that’s devastating our planet,” Randi Spivak, public lands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “We’ll keep fighting against the fossil-fuel industry and the politicians that are bought by them.”

[NullTuples]

16. Does the judiciary have any responsibility to the environment?

[stillcool]

18. Not if it interupts the money flow

[former9thward]

7. Thomas wrote the opinion.

So actually the liberals sided with him.

[lastlib]

9. not necessarily....

It was a dissenting opinion. Anything could happen there. But it certainly doesn't fit the Thomas formula..... :scratchhead:

[certainot]

10. all i know is patents are for rich people and corporations

[SWBTATTReg]

11. Interesting. I wonder if the rest of administrative law judges, e.g., awarding social security...

benefits, and other areas that use admin. law judges, would now be questioned and/or reviewed by a 'higher' authority?

[Blasphemer]

12. That's definitely the larger context of this ruling...

Questions about the constitutional status of ALJs have been brewing for years.

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Makes sense too, that under the constitution, there is a chain of higher authority to question

judgments, etc. Perhaps a good thing? Thanks for the tidbit on aljs and their authority being questioned.

[Fla Dem]

14. Pkah, so Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayo And Clarence Thomas dissented!

So I would consider this a plus for the conservative wing.

But in reading the post it would appear they are reigning in mega companies who by using a little slight of hand with patents they prevent smaller companies from benefitting when the original patent expires.

Why would progressive judges disagree with this decision. Even more confusing that Thomas stood with the 3 Amigos.

[oldsoftie]

15. There's really been some odd combinations lately!

I think thats a good thing

[MarineCombatEngineer]

17. So if I'm reading this right,

it seems that the conservative wing, except for Thomas, ruled against the corporations by reigning in their practice of squeezing out the smaller companies.

Some really weird bed fellows these Justice's here lately.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

19. Justices scale back "unreviewable authority" of administrative patent judges

SCOTUS NEWS

Justices scale back “unreviewable authority” of administrative patent judges
By George Quillin and Jeanne Gills on June 21 at 2:48 p.m.

The court ruled 5-4 that over 200 patent judges were unconstitutionally appointed without Senate confirmation, and 7-2 that the remedy is to give the director of the Patent and Trademark Office further oversight.



{snip}

Recommended Citation: George Quillin and Jeanne Gills, Justices scale back “unreviewable authority” of administrative patent judges, SCOTUSblog (Jun. 21, 2021, 3:07 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/06/justices-scale-back-unreviewable-authority-of-administrative-patent-judges/