Brooks Kushman Shareholder Discusses Federal Circuit Decision to Deny an Auto Parts Co’s Bid to Invalidate Opponent’s Patent

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Brooks Kushman Shareholder Linda Mettes was quoted in a Law360 August 3, 2018 article, “Fed. Circ. Says Auto Parts Co. Lacks Standing In PTAB Appeal.”

The article discusses the Federal Circuit’s decision to rule that JTEKT Corp., an auto parts maker, does not have standing to appeal a PTAB decision upholding part of a patent that the company has said poses a risk to its development of a drivetrain product.

The article further reviews how the court dismissed the appeal that JTEKT filed after the PTAB decision in inter partes review, because, as the court wrote in the 2017 decision in Phigenix Inc. v. ImmunoGen Inc., “estoppel provision[s] ‘do[] not constitute an injury in fact’ when … the appellant ‘is not engaged in any activity that would give rise to a possible infringement suit.”

In the article, Mettes is quoted saying, “we are gratified that the Federal Circuit carefully looked at the issue of standing and came to the right decision.”

Mettes is a registered patent attorney, and focuses on intellectual property litigation. She has handled cases in Federal courts across the country in a wide array of technologies, including mechanical, electrical, chemical and pharmaceutical.

The full article can be found on the Law360 website here.