How COVID-19 Is Impacting U.S. District Courts and the PTAB

Alex Yap and Nicholas Fung authored an article for Intellectual Asset Management detailing the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. district courts and the Patent Trials and Appeals Board (PTAB).

“The continued spread of COVID-19 in the United States and abroad has forced litigants to postpone depositions, continue hearings, and cancel travel that is often necessary to effectively litigate a case,” the authors wrote. “Multiple district courts have now issued guidelines for addressing case disruptions, including postponing trials until further notice.”

“However, while litigants in district court cases confront the new reality of delays and the inability to conduct routine discovery, the impact of COVID-19 is less clear on parties appearing in post-grant proceedings before the PTAB, where discovery is limited and hearings can often be conducted by teleconference or videoconference.”

Read the full article.