Supreme Court divided over legality of patent reviews

By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared divided over whether a federal agency's in-house process for challenging patents violates the constitutional rights of patent owners, leaving the fate of a system that has led to a high rate of patent cancellations uncertain. In one of the most important Supreme Court patent cases in years, the nine justices heard an hour of arguments in a dispute over the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's patent review proceeding, known as inter partes review (IPR). Three of the court's liberal justices appeared sympathetic toward the review process, but other justices including conservatives John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch raised concerns that the government might be able to revoke patents too easily.

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