WHEN the Chief Judge of the PTAB was appointed 1.5 years ago the USPTO got itself a technical judge with a decent background in charge of an important panel/board. We have not seen any evidence whatsoever of foul play under his watch. We do, however, see patent scammers (like the lawyers of the Mohawk tribe) flinging conspiracy theories at him. The anti-PTAB lobby has resorted to just attacking the judges (e.g. calling them impotent) and their integrity rather than application of the law etc.
"The law is the law and unlike the patent office, these people don't have an incentive to just grant as many patents as possible."We can sort of understand why PTAB is hated (we'll say more about that later today) and especially who it is hated by. As the latest issue of IAM magazine put it some days ago, PTAB's "Inter partes reviews continue to have a huge impact on patent litigation in the United States" and "patents become far less enticing" (for the litigation 'industry').
It's not uncommon to resort to judge-bashing -- something that is rarely done in Europe but is apparently considered acceptable in the US. According to Law 360, David Ruschke has just responded to common accusations:
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s chief judge pushed back Thursday on criticism from U.S. Supreme Court justices and others that the board can “stack the deck” and manipulate outcomes of cases by expanding panels, saying expansions aim to spotlight important issues, not dictate findings.
At a meeting of the Patent Public Advisory Committee, Chief Judge David Ruschke said that the public has “a little bit of a misconception as to what's actually happening” when the board decides to rehear decisions...