Response to the Proposed Changes to the Claim Construction Standard for Interpreting Claims in Trial Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Abstract

We the undersigned professors of law and economics offer this comment on the USPTO’s notice of proposed rulemaking to change how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will construe patent claims in its administrative trial proceedings. As a group, our research explores a wide range of issues in innovation, intellectual property, administrative process, and institutional design. What brings us together is our interest in the proper functioning of the U.S. patent system and Patent Office operations.

We appreciate the USPTO’s attention to the need for uniformity and predictability in the patent system, especially the agency’s ongoing efforts to improve the PTAB trial proceedings. For the reasons that follow, we support the proposed change away from the PTAB’s current broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) standard to the approach set forth in Phillips v. AWH Corp.

Keywords: patent, innovation, intellectual property, PTAB, claim construction, broadest reasonable interpretation, BRI, Phillips