Opinion ID: 785646
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Decide Patentability

Text: 9 Sullivan also argues that the Board inappropriately sought to relegate a part of its inter partes jurisdictional obligations to ex parte determination by the examiner. In other words, because the Board had jurisdiction not only over the issue of priority but also over the patentability issues Sullivan raised in his preliminary motions, Sullivan argues that the Board was required to address patentability even after it had rendered a decision on priority. This argument has no merit. The statutory provision governing interferences draws a distinction between the two issues: The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences shall determine questions of priority of the inventions and may determine questions of patentability. 35 U.S.C. § 135(a) (2000). Therefore, once priority is determined in an interference, the Board has discretion to terminate the interference without more. Berman, 291 F.3d at 1352 (rejecting the proposition that  all issues relating to patentability that are fairly raised in an interference must be addressed by the Board); see also Eli Lilly, 334 F.3d at 1267 (This authority for the Board to determine questions of priority... does not vitiate the Director's discretion to begin or discontinue an interference once declared.). We discern no abuse of that discretion in the Board's termination of an interference when one party concedes at an early stage that it lacks priority. Therefore, because Sullivan's concession definitively settled the priority issue, we hold that the Board's termination of the interference without further consideration of the patentability issue was not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, unsupported by substantial evidence, or otherwise not in accordance with law. In so holding, we do not suggest that the Board would be acting beyond its discretion in first deciding a 135(b) question and in terminating the interference on that basis. Berman, 291 F.3d at 1352.