On June 5, 2013, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) entered an order denying a motion seeking to join two additional parties, as petitioners and real parties-in-interest, that were not parties to the inter partes review (“IPR”) petition as originally filed (Case CBM2013-00014; Patent 6.625,682). According to the Board, there is no support in the AIA statute or rules for joining parties and instead, Congress provided for joinder of proceedings under § 325(c). Under the Board’s rationale, the statutory framework provides for “the situation where a party might wish to join an additional petition with an already instituted proceeding, and provides a way to do so.” To join additional parties to an existing proceeding, the Board indicates is a matter of first impression. Interestingly, by not having parties join an IPR, some courts weigh this factor into their determination of whether to grant a stay pending an IPR.
