‘Patent Death Squad’ Judges Can Be Fired, U.S. Appeals Court Says
A U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday that judges on a patent review panel were unconstitutionally appointed, casting a cloud over some of its work, according to a Bloomberg report.
The court ordered a new hearing before different judges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s review board in a dispute over a surgical device. The court suggested other pending patent challenges may suffer the same fate, report Bloomberg’s Susan Decker and Greg Stohr.
“The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that, under a 2011 law that created the reviews before the panel, called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, judges had so much authority they should have been appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.”
