NST Global, LLC, dba SB Tactical v. Sig Sauer Inc.

The Federal Circuit summarily affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to construe patent preambles as limiting, denying Patent Owner’s rights and narrowing its property. The questions presented are as follows:

1. Whether the Federal Circuit’s affirmance of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision that results from the Board’s sua sponte construction of a patent’s preambles as limiting based on convoluted and conflicting preamble construction standards, impermissibly eliminates or shifts the burden to invalidate a patent from the patent challenger in an Inter Partes Review Proceeding in contravention of statutory requirements under 35 U.S.C. §§ 112, 282, and 316.

2. Whether the Federal Circuit’s affirmance of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s Decision violated Patent Owner’s Due Process Rights and the Administrative Procedure Act where Patent Owner was not given notice that the Board was considering whether the language of a patent’s preamble was limiting such as to invalidate patent claims nor given an opportunity to present argument or evidence that the preamble was not limiting.

3. Whether in appeals from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Federal Circuit’s use of Federal Circuit Rule 36, which (i)