Putting on Your Best Face: Expanded PTAB Panels in IPRs and Other PTO Proceedings

By Kevin E. Noonan — There has been a great deal of angst generated by the practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of expanding panels from the customary three Administrative Patent Judges to include additional APJ's, including the Chief Judge and his deputies. This practice was identified, seemingly by accident, during oral argument in Yissum Research Development Co. v. Sony Corp.; there, it became evident that the USPTO administration can and had intervened to alter or expand panels. This practice has raised concerns regarding whether the PTAB is observing the procedural niceties…Original Article