Howard Berman: “I rise in support of H.R. 1886 and urge my colleagues to vote for it. It is largely noncontroversial. The Committee on…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 1886 and urge my colleagues to vote for it. It is largely noncontroversial. The Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property passed it by a voice vote on May 22, and the full committee reported it favorably by voice vote on June 20. The bill represents a good, if small, step in improving the usefulness of the inter partes reexamination procedure for patents. Currently, the inter partes reexamination procedure places so many constraints on third-party requesters of such reexamination that, as some patent attorneys have stated, 'It would be legal malpractice to recommend a client initiate an inter partes reexamination.' Among those constraints is the prohibition against a third party appealing an adverse reexamination decision to Federal court or participating in an appeal brought by the patentee. H.R. 1886 would allow an authority requester to appeal a reexamination decision to Federal court and to participate in an appeal by an applicant. By doing so, H.R. 1886 may make inter partes reexamination a somewhat more attractive option for challenging a patent. A third party will, at the least, now feel comfortable that the courts can be accessed to rectify a mistaken reexamination decision. While H.R. 1886 may not cure all the defects of inter partes reexamination, I believe it is a good start, and I urge my colleagues to vote for it.”