On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a controversial rule imposed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), a rule with broad implications for U.S. technological leadership for the U.S. economy, and raised genuine questions about administrative procedure. By denying cert in the case, the Court is forcing the PTO to fix its own mistake.
By way of background, in 2011, Congress passed the America Invents Act. The new law addressed problems presented by patents of dubious validity that block technologies they shouldn’t. It was the most important reform to our patent system in the last 50 years.
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