Supreme Court Weighs Streamlined Patent Challenges<br />Oil States appealed its administrative loss to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which is part of the judicial branch, arguing<br />that its constitutional rights had been violated by the tribunal procedure.<br />“And then suddenly somebody comes in and says, ‘Oh, want it re-examined, not in court but by the patent office.’”<br />He later suggested that the Supreme Court could uphold the procedure in the case before it<br />but “leave open the question of what happens if there has been huge investment.”<br />Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appeared troubled by the tribunal procedure.<br />“What saves this,” she said of the tribunal procedure, is that “even a patent invalidity finding can be appealed to a court.”<br />But one member of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, expressed a concern.<br />Allyson N. Ho, a lawyer for Oil States, said there was a difference between re-examination, which<br />is the job of an executive-branch agency, and adjudication, which is the job of the courts.<br />He asked Christopher M. Kise, a lawyer for Greene’s Energy, whether his position was that “you’ve got to take the bitter with the sweet.”<br />The chief justice elaborated.
