Estoppel Pursuant to Section 315(e)(1): Ongoing USPTO Developments
Highlights
Two Salesforce ex parte reexamination decisions may reflect new treatment of real parties in interest considerations at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Within the four factors applied in determining Section 315(e)(1) estoppel, the reexamination decisions provide some insight as to RPI considerations and the definition of the “skilled searcher”
Amid the present decisions, USPTO’s newly proposed “for-profit entity” rules and pending cases such as Unified Patents, LLC v. MemoryWeb, LLC, it will be important to monitor PTAB’s treatment of a party’s status for its impact on threshold matters for USPTO proceedings
In two related ex parte reexamination proceedings requested by Salesforce, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Central Reexamination Unit determined that estoppel under Section 315(e)(1) of the U.S. Code applied to Salesforce due to earlier inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by another party, RPX Corporation.
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