The Board has earned a reputation for rigidly following the procedural rules for IPR proceedings, for good reason. Early on, the Board was likely concerned that an ad hoc web of decisions that granted relief from the variety of rules that govern IPR would create an unwieldly body of decisions. As IPR approaches its 3-year old birthday, however, there are ever growing signs that the Board is willing to consider deviations from core procedural rules, in the right circumstances. For example, in Daicci Sankyo Co., Ltd., v. Alethia Biotherapeutics, Inc., IPR2015-00291, the Board granted Patent Owner’s request for 25 additional pages to argue the prior art status of certain references relied upon by Petitioner. Order at 3. Finding that the particular facts of the case favored an exception to the rules, the Board granted Patent Owner an additional 25 pages “to be used solely for the purposes of addressing the prior art status of references relied on by Petitioner based on prior conception plus reasonable diligence and/or prior actual reduction to practice.” Id. Similarly, Petitioner was granted an additional 12 pages to its reply brief to respond to these arguments.

Also interesting in this decision is the Board’s recitation of what should be addressed relative to this conception issues. Specifically, Patent Owner was instructed to present a “diligence chart” that includes: “1) list all days from the beginning of diligence through the end of diligence, 2) briefly state what happened on each day, and 3) cite the page and line of the motion on which the listed day is discussed; every date gap in the diligence showing must be explained…” Order at 4.

So, the Board demonstrates some leniency in the procedural rules, and also provides interesting guidance regarding what should be provided to the Board to prove diligence.