U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Says the PTAB’s Interpretation of the Joinder Provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 315(c) is Wrong
April 28, 2020
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held on March 18, 2020, that 35 U.S.C. § 315(c) does not authorize same-party joinder or the joinder of new issues into an existing IPR proceeding. The case is Facebook, Inc. v. Windy City Innovations, LLC953 F.3d 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2020). The Court’s decision effectively reverses the Precedential Opinion Panel’s conclusions in Proppant Express Investments, LLC v. Oren Technologies, LLC No. IPR2018-00914, Paper 38 (PTAB Mar. 13, 2019), permitting a petitioner to be joined to a proceeding in which it is already a party and the joinder of new issues in an existing proceeding.
