In re Gomez
Panel: Dyk, Mayer, Stark
The Federal Circuit granted a joint motion to remand in In re Gomez, returning Patent Application No. 17/375,841 to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for further proceedings. The appeal arose from the Board's rejection of certain claims in Gomez's application, with the parties jointly representing that the Board had relied on a reference that did not qualify as prior art.
The court's order reflects the procedural mechanism by which the PTO and an applicant can jointly seek remand when an error in the Board's analysis comes to light on appeal. By granting the motion based on the parties' representation that the Board improperly treated non-prior art as prior art in its rejection, the court allowed correction of a threshold legal error without full briefing and argument, preserving judicial resources while ensuring the Board applies the correct legal framework to the patentability determination on remand.