Chris Loh was quoted in a June 11, 2019 IP Watchdog article and the June 19, 2019 issue of Westlaw Journal Intellectual Property regarding the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Return Mail Inc. v. U.S. Postal Service et al. The Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. government doesn't qualify as a "person" for the purposes of petitioning the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to institute inter partes review proceedings under the America Invents Act (AIA).
Loh said the decision "significantly limits the venues and circumstances in which the U.S. government can challenge the validity of an issued patent."
"It seems that the only situation in which the government unambiguously can challenge the validity of an issued patent is by asserting such a challenge as a defense against a claim for damages filed by a patentee in the Court of Federal Claims. The Supreme Court's reasoning that the term 'person' does not include the government also casts doubt on whether the government can challenge the validity of issued patents through ex parte reexamination," he said.