Lynk Labs' SCOTUS Petition Challenges CAFC's Bifurcated Approach to U.S. Patent Applications as IPR Prior Art

"Last week, a petition for writ of certiorari filed by Lynk Labs was docketed at the U.S. Supreme Court challenging rulings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) regarding the scope of invalidating prior art that can be asserted in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)."

"This January, the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB's obviousness ruling in a precedential decision, dismissing Lynk Labs' argument that a U.S. patent application disclosing an alternating current light emitting device ("Martin") could not qualify as a prior art printed publication because it was only published after the critical date of Lynk Labs' challenged patent. Assessing pre-American Invents Act (AIA) conditions for novelty codified at 35 U.S.C."

A petition for writ of certiorari by Lynk Labs was docketed at the U.S. Supreme Court challenging USPTO and Federal Circuit rulings on the scope of prior art in PTAB IPR proceedings. Lynk Labs asserts that a U.S. patent application (Martin) used in the PTAB's obviousness determination was improperly treated as a printed publication because it remained unpublished until after the challenged patent's critical date. The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB's ruling, applying pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. §102 principles and concluding that U.S. patent applications fall within §102(b)'s printed-publication prior art. Lynk contends the Federal Circuit's interpretation removes the temporal publication requirement.

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