Claim Construction Changes from BRI to Phillips: Recent Proposal from USPTO
· Recently, The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced a propose change to the standard for construing both unexpired and amended patent claims in The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (The PTAB) proceedings under the America Invents Act (“AIA”). · The change would replace the current Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (“BRI”) standard with the standard articulated in Phillips v. AWH Corp . (415 F.3d 1303, Fed. Cir. 2005). · This change would harmonize the claim construction standard applied in Inter Partes Review (IPR), Post-Grant Review (PGR), and Covered Business Method (CBM) patent proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) with the one used by federal district courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC). · The proposed amendment would also allow the PTAB to consider any prior claim construction determination concerning a term of the involved claim in a c...