Rubén Muñoz Quoted by Bloomberg on Constitutionality Questions for PTAB
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Akin Gump intellectual property partner Rubén Muñoz has been quoted in the Bloomberg article “Creative Lawyering Puts Patent Tribunal to Constitutional Test.” The article reports that the constitutionality of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) will soon face new questions as lawyers look to challenge its legitimacy.
Bloomberg says the Supreme Court is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to review a case pertaining to how PTAB judges are appointed. It wouldn’t be the first time the board has faced questions over its constitutionality. In 2018, the article reports, the Court looked at that very issue in Oil States v. Greene’s Energy, where the justices rejected arguments that PTAB inter partes reviews violate Article III of the Constitution and the 7th Amendment right to a jury trial.
Muñoz said that, “immediately after Oil States people raised their antennas regarding due process and takings.” Those two clauses, the article adds, have been the focus of several of the challenges already seen, perhaps fueled in part by Oil States.
