Supreme Court To Consider Certiorari Petition Re Constitutionality of PTO Judicial Appointments

The SCOTUS blog reports here that on September 29, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari filed in Translogic Technology, Inc. v. Dudas (Docket No. 07-1303) . The issues: "Whether the director of the Patent and Trademark Office lacked constitutional authority to appoint members of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI), and, if so, whether the board's decision below must be vacated as a result." Links to the briefs may be found at the SCOTUS blog posting.


The TTABlog previously reported (here and here) on this controversy and its potential impact on the TTAB. The same legislation (The Intellectual Property and Communications Reform Act of 1999, 113 Stat. 1501 et seq.) that gave the Director of the USPTO the power to appoint BPAI judges also gave him or her the power to appoint TTAB judges. (See Section 4716 and see 15 U.S.C. Sec. 17(b)). It is that legislation that is at the heart of the Supreme Court case.

Text Copyright John L. Welch 2008.