Supreme Court Hears First Arguments in Arthrex

The Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in United States v. Arthrex could have a significant impact on patent law. The Court must decide if the current procedure for the appointment of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) administrative patent judges (APJs) is unconstitutional under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution. World Intellectual Property Review interviewed Finnegan partner Cory Bell for his thoughts on the case.

Cory said, “A critical point will probably be the amount of supervision required. Many Justices seemed to be drawing distinctions between supervision of policy setting activities and how the policy is applied in each case. If supervision at the case level is required, there seemed to be agreement that it could be fixed by striking part of the statute. But it was not clear if they would be willing to do so.”

Read the full article here.