Five Things to Know for Patent Trial and Appeal Board Arguments

Bloomberg Law interviewed Trenton Ward, Finnegan partner and former lead administrative patent judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), for his insight into how to succeed in arguing before the PTAB. One tip that Trenton recommended was to use live testimony from witnesses during oral hearings, which is rare and currently only available in limited circumstances. In 2014, Trenton was part of the first panel to allow live testimony in an oral hearing. The PTAB did not rule in favor of the party who offered the live witness, and Trenton believes that may have served as a deterrent for subsequent parties to consider live testimony. However, Trenton doesn’t think attorneys should rule it out. "I think that there probably are more situations where it would behoove a party to request live testimony."

Read the full article here.