The U.S. Supreme Court Monday decided in Cuozzo Speed Technologies LLC v. Lee that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board can continue to use a claim construction standard to review patents in America Invents Act reviews that is different from the one used in district court.

Law360 quotes William O’Brien on why the decision is significant. “The Supreme Court followed its precedents on agency deference, but the result is to permit inconsistencies in claim constructions that would never be tolerated if infringement and validity were both being determined in court. By petitioning the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, an accused infringer gains a broader playing field for contesting validity, because the board will compare the prior art to the ‘broadest reasonable construction’ of the patent claims it reviews. If the claims nonetheless survive, the case returns to court, where the accused infringer can invoke different claim construction rules and play infringement defense on a narrower field.”

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