Running a bit short on space in your IPR brief? Think you might sneak one past the Board by stretching those margins by a tenth of an inch or two? Think again. It should come as no surprise given that the inter partes review and post grant review rules are very specific on brief length, font, spacing, etc., but the Board recently caught a party stretching the margins, and the party paid for it.

In CBS Interactive, et al. v. Hleferich Patent Licensing, LLC et al,, IPR2013-00033 (Paper 79), Patent Owner alleged that the margins of a reply brief filed by Petitioner are less than the 1 inch requirement of 37 CFR § 42.6(a)(2)(iv). CBS did not disagree, blaming a “clerical error.” The Board noted that, if proper margins were used, the reply would have exceeded the 15 page limit. Indeed, the Board went so far as to determine that about 15 lines of text would have fallen over the page limit. As such, the Board decided it will ignore those 15 lines of text in considering Petitioner’s reply brief.