December 19, 2019

The Precedential Opinion Panel (POP) today issued its decision on the issue of what is required for a petitioner to establish that an asserted reference qualifies as a “printed publication” at the institution stage.  The POP held that, for institution, the petitioner must submit evidence sufficient to establish a reasonable likelihood that a reference is a “printed publication”—that it was publicly accessible before the critical date of the challenged patent.  The POP also addressed whether there exists a presumption in favor of institution generally and thus a presumption that a reference is a “printed publication.”  The POP said that there are no such presumptions.  Hulu,LLC v. Sound View Innovations, LLC, IPR2018-01039 (PTAB Dec. 20, 2019) (Paper 29).