Opinion ID: 813175
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Adequate Remedies are Available

Text: The APA authorizes judicial review only where the agency action is “made reviewable by statute” or where there is a “final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court.” 5 U.S.C. § 704. As we have held, the PTO’s decision to issue a patent during original examination is not “made reviewable by statute.” Thus, the review Pregis seeks under the APA is barred by § 704 unless “there is no other adequate remedy” available in court. The Patent Act provides three different adequate remedies in court for competitors harmed by the PTO’s erroneous issuance of a patent. The Patent Act allows any third party to request an inter partes reexamination by raising a substantial new question of patentability. 35 U.S.C. §§ 301, 311. A participant in inter partes reexamination may obtain judicial review of a PTO decision to allow claims after reexamination by appealing to the Board and then, if necessary, to this court. 35 U.S.C. § 315(b). Additionally, a putative infringer can raise invalidity as a defense to a patent suit or can proactively bring a declaratory judgment action against the patent owner to have the patent declared invalid. 35 U.S.C. § 282. Each of these avenues provides review, in an Article III court, of the validity of patents issued by the PTO. PREGIS CORP v. KAPPOS 20 In litigation against the patentee, the putative infringer can attack the patent on a wide variety of substantive grounds (e.g., failure to comply with the conditions for patentability set forth in Part II of Title 35, or with the written description, enablement, definiteness and other requirements of § 112). 35 U.S.C. § 282(b). These are generally the same criteria on which the PTO reviews patentability, and thus present the same issues that would be raised in a direct challenge to the PTO’s reasons for issuing the patent. If successful, the relief granted—invalidation of patent claims—fully relieves the harm caused by the PTO having erroneously issued the patent. Pregis argues that because not all PTO mistakes are recognized as defenses under § 282, a declaratory judgment action or the defenses in an infringement suit are not an adequate judicial remedy. See Aristocrat Techs. Australia Pty Ltd. v. Int’l Game Tech., 543 F.3d 657, 66263 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (improper revival of abandoned application is not a cognizable defense to infringement claim). Yet, the specific list of defenses available under § 282 reflects the deliberate judgment of Congress that not every error during prosecution should provide a defense to a claim of patent infringement. Similarly, Pregis argues that the presumption of validity of an issued patent, which can be overcome only by “clear and convincing evidence,” renders patent litigation an inadequate alternative to review under the APA. Pregis asserts that a civil action under 5 U.S.C. § 702 would not give such weight to the PTO decision being challenged. 5 U.S.C. § 706. Regardless, a suit under the APA would impermissibly alter the burden of proof, set by Congress and confirmed by the Supreme Court, for invalidating a patent. See 35 U.S.C. § 282; Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. P’ship, 131 S. Ct. 2238, 2246 (2011) (holding 21 PREGIS CORP v. KAPPOS Congress chose the “clear and convincing” standard of proof by stating in § 282 that a patent is “presumed valid”). Furthermore, a judicial remedy is adequate for purposes of 5 U.S.C. § 704 even if it does not “provide relief identical to relief under the APA, so long as it offers relief of the ‘same genre.’” Garcia v. Vilsack, 563 F.3d 519, 523 (D.C. Cir. 2009). A private lawsuit against a third party, such as litigation of patent validity in an action against the patentee, need not be “as effective as an APA lawsuit against the regulating agency.” Id. at 525. The alternate remedy in court need only be “adequate” for it to supplant a suit under the APA. Id.; 5 U.S.C. § 704. In sum, the fact that the defenses available under 35 U.S.C. § 282, or in a challenge to a patent through inter partes reexamination, are not identical to an APA suit does not render the carefully-considered judicial remedies provided by the Patent Act “inadequate.”4