Sas Institute Inc. v. Iancu

138 S.Ct. 1348 (2018)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P sought an inter partes review of ComplementSoft’s software patent. P alleged that all 16 of the patent’s claims were unpatentable for various reasons. D concluded that SAS was likely to succeed with respect to at least one of the claims and that an inter partes review was therefore warranted. D instituted review on only some (claims 1 and 3-10) and denied review on the rest. D issued a final written decision finding claims 1, 3, and 5-10 to be unpatentable while upholding claim 4. D’s decision did not address the remaining claims on which the D had refused review. P sought review in the Federal Circuit and argued that §318(a) required D to decide the patentability of every claim P challenged in its petition, not just some. The Federal Circuit rejected P. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.