Source: https://www.btlaw.com/insights/alerts/2018/the-cafc-rules-for-wider-application-of-litigation-time-bar-against-filing-of-inter-partes
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 19:01:26+00:00

Document:
On August 16, 2018, the Federal Circuit held that the one-year time bar under 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) for initiating Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceedings challenging validity of a patent is triggered by service of a complaint, regardless of whether that complaint is later dismissed “without prejudice.” Click-To-Call Technologies LP v. Ingenio Inc. et al., No. 2015-1242 (Fed. Cir. August 16, 2018). Even though the case was before a three-judge panel, the ruling on the time bar question was endorsed 10-2 by the Court, en banc, in a footnote.
The opinion in Click-To-Call is one of the first to review the application of § 315(b) following the recent holding in Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom Corp., 878 F.3d 1364, 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (en banc) allowing for appeals of time bar determinations. Specifically, the Federal Circuit held that “the text of § 315(b) clearly and unmistakably considers only the date on which the petitioner, its privy, or a real party in interest was properly served with a complaint.” Click-To-Call, No. 2015-1242, slip op. at 17. The Court reasoned that “a defendant served with a complaint as part of a civil action that is voluntarily dismissed without prejudice remains ‘served’ with the ‘complaint,’” and, thus, remains subject to the time bar of § 315(b). Id., slip op. at 24. “It is impossible to square Wi-Fi One’s ‘cannot be rectified’ and ‘in no event’ language with the possibility that subsequent events in the civil action might operate to ‘nullify’ service of the complaint for the purpose of § 315(b)’s time bar.” Id., slip op. at 14.
Also of note is that the lawsuit triggering the time bar in the Click-To-Call case was filed in 2001 and voluntarily dismissed without prejudice in 2003—ten years prior to the America Invents Act (AIA) becoming effective. Thus, a lawsuit settled pre AIA could result in a bar to filing an IPR.
For more information, contact the Barnes & Thornburg attorney with whom you work or Kyle Forgue at 312-214-4841 or KForgue@btlaw.com; Matthew Gryzlo at MGryzlo@btlaw.com or 312-338-5923. You can also contact a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Law Department in the following offices: Atlanta (404-846-1693), Chicago (312-357-1313), Columbus (614-628-0096), Dallas (214-258-4200), Delaware (302-300-3434), Elkhart (574-293-0681), Fort Wayne (260-423-9440), Grand Rapids (616-742-3930), Indianapolis (317-236-1313), Los Angeles (310-284-3880), Minneapolis (612-333-2111), South Bend (574-233-1171), Washington, D.C. (202-289-1313).

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