Will The America Invents Act Post-Grant Review Improve The Quality Of Patents? A

After years of attempts to reform its sixty-year-old patent law, in September of 2011 the United States enacted The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). The law ushers in substantial changes in U.S. patent law and practice. Significant among the changes are a number of new trial proceedings though which third parties may challenge patents at U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) once the patent has issued. The AIA law introduced three new or revised post issuance inter partes proceedings: post-grant review, inter partes review, and a specialized post-grant review for certain business methods. These proceedings address rising concerns over a perceived proliferation of poor quality patents due to substantial increases in the number of patent applications in the U.S. The primary avenue for testing the validity of patents in the U.S. has been litigation, which is both costly and time consuming. A primary justification for the new post issuance proceedings was to provide a faster and less expensive alternative to litigation. Providing an opportunity for third parties to intervene post issuance is not new in the U.S. system. Since 1981, third parties or the patent owner have been able to request a