The US Supreme Court [official website] granted certiorari [order, PDF] Monday in SAS Institute Inc. v. Lee [SCOTUSblog materials] on whether third parties can petition the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) [official website] to re-review issued claims and, if not patentable, cancel them. The question now is whether the re-review law requires the USPTO to issue written decisions regarding all the challenged claims, or only some of them. The issue before the court is:

Whether 35 USC § 318(a), which provides that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in an inter partes review “shall issue a final written decision with respect to the patentability of any patent claim challenged by the petitioner,” requires that Board to issue a final written decision as to every claim challenged by the petitioner, or whether it allows that Board to issue a final written decision with respect to the patentability of only some of the patent claims challenged by the petitioner, as the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held.

Petitioner claims [cert. petition, PDF] that the statute in question is written in plain English, and should be interpreted in the manner in which the words mean in common conversation. The relevant statutory provision is, “If an inter partes review is instituted and not dismissed under this chapter, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board shall issue a final written decision with respect to the patentability of any patent claim challenged by the petitioner.”