Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene's Energy Group, LLC
United States Supreme Court
138 S. Ct. 1365 (2018)
Oil States (plaintiff) sued Greene's Energy (defendant) for infringing its hydraulic-fracturing patent, and Greene's separately petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for inter partes review, arguing the patent was anticipated by prior art; even after a federal court rejected that prior-art argument, the Board later found the claims unpatentable anyway. Oil States appealed to the Federal Circuit, arguing inter partes review unconstitutionally allows an executive-branch board to revoke a patent without an Article III court and jury trial; the Federal Circuit rejected this argument in a related case and affirmed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether inter partes review, as conducted by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, violates the United States Constitution's requirement that judicial power be exercised only by Article III courts.