Supreme Court Rules Federal Agencies Cannot Challenge Patents Through America Invents Act Review Proceedings

On June 10, 2019, in Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service et al., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal agencies cannot challenge patents through post-issuance review proceedings established under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). With this holding, the Court overturned the lower decisions of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which previously invalidated Return Mail’s patent on grounds that it was directed to an abstract idea of relaying mail address data.