Partner Nate Kelley was quoted in the Law360* article, "Patent Cases To Watch In 2020," regarding the U.S. Supreme Court possible decision to address the contentious issue of patent eligibility, and the justices guidelines on appeals of inter partes review decisions. 

It’s been nearly six years since the Supreme Court last weighed in on what types of inventions are eligible for patents, and patent owners have complained since then that the previous decisions have been unclear and resulted in too many patents being invalidated. However, the government appears to be advocating for a full-scale rethinking of eligibility law, and “I seriously doubt the court's inclined to do that,” said Nate Kelley.

Nate said the court could instead decide to hear the cases the government advised against taking, known as HP Inc. v. Berkheimer and Hikma v. Vanda, which involve more limited questions related to eligibility, in order to make limited tweaks to the law. He questioned whether people calling for a sweeping overhaul of the issue by the Supreme Court “really want what they're asking for.”

“No one has been happy with the decisions they've seen in the last five to ten years, so I don't know why all of a sudden people think they're going to be very happy,” he said.

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