PTAB Issued Decision on Petition for Inter Partes Review

On January 31, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued the first decision on a petition for inter partes review (IPR2012-00027) that granted trial on all claims challenged in the petition. The PTAB found that the petiton, filed by Foley & Lardner on behalf of its client Idle Free Systems, Inc. raised a "reasonable likelihood of success" in showing that all challenged claims would be proven invalid. Previous decisions on IPR petitions have been mixed, denying trial for certain claims. The inter partes review process was created by the America Invents Act of 2011, and has been available only since Sept. 16, 2012.