Judge Nina Wang was confirmed by the Senate last week as Colorado’s newest US District Court judge. Judge Wang has a good deal of patent law experience and has taught patent litigation and trial advocacy at the University of Colorado Law School. Here’s a link to an earlier post: [Link]. Here is an announcement: [Link].
It will be interesting to see if the US District Court for Colorado experiences an uptick in patent lawsuit filings.
We are finally starting to get some insight into the behind the scenes operation (meddling?) in the management of PTAB panels. The Government Accountability Office has released a report with respect to the operation of the PTAB. One of the important facts revealed by the report is that: “the majority of judges (75 percent) surveyed by GAO responded that the oversight practiced by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) directors and PTAB management has affected their independence, with nearly a quarter citing a large effect on independence.”
Also, “the majority of judges GAO surveyed reported they experienced pressure to adhere to management comments and to change or modify an aspect of their decision for an America Invents Act (AIA) trial on challenges to the validity of issued patents.”
The public always assumes that there is transparency in the operation of the PTAB. But, what do we really know about the machinery at work behind the scenes? PTAB judges must meet certain technical and legal requirements to serve as PTAB judges, with the assumption that they are the ones making decisions on a particular case. What do we know of the technical and legal CV’s of the behind-the-scenes people requesting changes in opinions?
The GAO report is available here: [Link].
Update: 7/21/22, 12:45 MDT
One judge we spoke with described a situation where management expanded a panel to include members of PTAB executive management; however, the names of the management officials never appeared on the final decision, nor were the parties privy to the expansion.
Preliminary Observations on Oversight of Judicial Decisionmaking, Government Accountability Office, July 21, 2022 at page 21.