By Kevin E. Noonan — While much has been written about the effect of the post-grant review provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (2012) in invalidating U.S. patents, the change in the law most responsible for how easy it has become to invalidate patents is arguably the Supreme Court’s decision in Dickinson v. Zurko (1999). That decision, which applied the provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act (1948) to judicial review of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office determinations mandated that disgruntled patentees and patent applicants show that factual decisions by the Office are not supported by substantial evidence in order…
