District Court Cannot Force Discovery in Patent Reexamination But AIA Different

The Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling in Abbott Laboratories v. Cordis Corp., finding that “a district court cannot force a party to produce documents in a patent reexamination proceeding” at the USPTO. The March 20 decision distinguished reexamination from inter partes review, which replaces reexamination under the America Invents Act (AIA). Finnegan represented Abbott in this matter.