PTAB: Federal Circuit’s Click-to-Call Holding Applies to Statutory Bar Under 35 U.S.C. § 315(a)

Apr 10, 2019

Reading Time : 3 min

On August 24, 2017, Mylan filed an IPR against Pozen and Horizon Pharma USA, Inc. (the “Patent Owners”). In their preliminary response, Patent Owners contended that the petition was barred pursuant to § 315(a) because the petition was filed after Mylan asserted a counterclaim for declaratory judgment of invalidity of U.S. Patent No. 9,200,698 (the “’698 Patent”) in a civil action where the ’698 Patent had not been asserted. Initially, the Board had found that Mylan was not barred because the counterclaim of invalidity directed to the ’698 Patent was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice. Shortly after institution, the Board instituted DRL’s petition and granted its motion to join the Mylan IPR proceeding with the understanding that DRL’s petition was time-barred pursuant to § 315(b)’s absent joinder. During the pendency of the proceeding, however, the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Click-to-Call Technologies, LP v. Ingenio, Inc., 899 F.3d 1321, 1329 (2018), which held that the statutory time bar of § 315(b) applies even if the litigation triggering the bar was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice. Thus, the Board authorized the parties to file briefs addressing the effect of Click-to-Call’s holding on the instant proceeding.

The Board concluded that although the Click-to-Call decision directly addressed § 315(b), the Federal Circuit’s reasoning applied equally to § 315(a). The Board noted that § 315 governs the relationship between IPRs and other actions; § 315(a) concerns actions by the petitioner triggering the bar and § 315(b) concerns actions by the patent owner triggering the time bar. According to the Board, similar to the Federal Circuit’s analysis of the language of § 315(b) in Click-to-Call, the language in § 315(a) is plain and unambiguous and contains no exceptions or exemptions for filing civil actions that are later dismissed. The Board, therefore, concluded that the difference in actors (i.e., petitioner for § 315(a) versus patent owner for § 315(b)) does not justify imposing radically different outcomes for voluntary dismissal of civil actions. The Board reasoned that the petitioner’s filing of a civil action triggers the bar pursuant to § 315(a)(1) regardless of whether the action is later dismissed.

Next, the Board determined that Mylan’s invalidity counterclaim constituted the filing of a civil action challenging the validity of the ’698 Patent thereby triggering the time bar pursuant to § 315(a)(1). Although § 315(a)(3) provides that a counterclaim challenging the validity of a claim of a patent does not constitute a civil action challenging validity of the patent, the Board relied on the legislative history to conclude that this language did not include a counterclaim asserting invalidity of a patent that was not asserted in the complaint. Because it was undisputed that the complaint in the civil action did not assert that Mylan infringed the ’698 Patent—and that Mylan introduced the ’698 Patent into the litigation by challenging its validity through a counterclaim—the Board found that Mylan’s counterclaim did not qualify as a “counterclaim” under § 315(a)(3). Instead, the Board determined that it constituted a “civil action challenging the validity of a claim of the patent” pursuant to § 315(a)(1).

Finally, the Board concluded that the appropriate remedy was to vacate its institution decision and terminate the proceeding. The Board found that the regulations expressly grant the Board broad authority to dismiss a petition where appropriate and to terminate a trial without rendering a final written decision. See 37 C.F.R. §§ 42.71(a), 42.72, 42.5(a). In addition, the Board vacated its decisions instituting DRL’s petition and granting DRL’s joinder motion. The Board concluded that it lacked authority to join DRL to Mylan’s barred petition, and absent joinder, DRL’s petition was time-barred. Thus, the proceeding was terminated.

Practice Tip: An accused infringer in a district court action that is considering filing a counterclaim seeking declaratory judgment of invalidity against an unasserted patent must also recognize the potential IPR bar triggered under 35 U.S.C. 315(a).

Mylan Pharms. Inc. v. Horizon Pharma USA, Inc., IPR2017-01995, Paper 71 (PTAB 2019)

Share This Insight

Previous Entries

IP Newsflash

May 27, 2025

The Federal Circuit affirmed a District of Delaware finding of non-infringement in an ANDA litigation due to the patentee’s clear and unmistakable disavowal of claim scope during prosecution. Specifically, the court held that statements made during prosecution of a parent application before the asserted claims were allowed amounted to a prosecution disclaimer that extended to subsequent patents in the family. In reaching this conclusion, the court rejected an attempt by the patentee to resurrect the claim scope through a unilateral, self-serving statement made in later applications in the family.

...

Read More

IP Newsflash

May 13, 2025

The Federal Circuit recently affirmed a district court’s holding that patent term extension (PTE) for a reissued patent was properly based on the issue date of the original patent and not that of the reissued patent. The Federal Circuit concluded that, where both the original and reissued patents claimed a drug product under regulatory review, using the issue date of the original patent to calculate PTE comports with both the purpose of the Hatch-Waxman Act and the related statutory context.

...

Read More

IP Newsflash

May 12, 2025

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently declined to institute a petition for IPR that was filed on the same day that the petitioner filed another petition challenging the same claims of the same patent. The board was not persuaded by petitioner’s arguments that a second petition was needed due to alleged claim construction issues or the number, length or scope differences of the challenged claims.

...

Read More

IP Newsflash

May 9, 2025

The USPTO Director vacated the board’s decision to institute inter partes review based on an erroneous application of the Fintiv factors. Specifically, the Director found that the board placed too much emphasis on Petitioner’s Sotera stipulation, and not enough emphasis on the investment in the parallel litigation. Weighing the factors as a whole, the Director determined that institution should be denied.

...

Read More

IP Newsflash

May 9, 2025

In an institution decision following the USPTO’s withdrawal of its Fintiv Memo, the board addressed discretionary denial of an IPR under Fintiv in view of a parallel ITC investigation. The board noted it would not consider the now-rescinded June 2022 memo from then-director Vidal which instructed that the PTAB would not deny institution of an IPR or PGR under Fintiv when the request is based on a parallel ITC investigation. The board conducted a Fintiv analysis in view of the ITC investigation, but ultimately determined that discretionary denial was not warranted in this particular situation.

...

Read More

IP Newsflash

April 23, 2025

The Federal Circuit recently refused to apply collateral estoppel to claims of a patent asserted in district court litigation based on a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision finding similar claims from the same patent unpatentable because the PTAB applied a lower burden of proof than what is required to invalidate claims in district court.

...

Read More

IP Newsflash

April 7, 2025

The Central District of California denied a defendant’s motion to dismiss or transfer plaintiff’s first-filed declaratory judgment action based on defendant’s later-filed patent infringement suit in Wisconsin.  Though suit was seemingly imminent when defendant advised plaintiff it might be infringing defendant’s patents, plaintiff responded by requesting a licensing agreement in lieu of litigation. The court found that plaintiff’s action was not anticipatory forum-shopping litigation because plaintiff only filed suit after defendant neglected to respond to its licensing offer.

...

Read More

IP Newsflash

April 1, 2025

The District of Delaware recently denied in part a motion to compel production of documents and testimony between a patentee and potential investors, valuation firms and an international bank based on the common interest exception. In so doing, the court reaffirmed that disclosure of privileged information to third parties will generally waive privilege unless it can be shown that the parties’ interests are identical and the communications are legal, not solely commercial.

...

Read More

© 2025 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. All rights reserved. Attorney advertising. This document is distributed for informational use only; it does not constitute legal advice and should not be used as such. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Akin is the practicing name of Akin Gump LLP, a New York limited liability partnership authorized and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 267321. A list of the partners is available for inspection at Eighth Floor, Ten Bishops Square, London E1 6EG. For more information about Akin Gump LLP, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and other associated entities under which the Akin Gump network operates worldwide, please see our Legal Notices page.