A recent Law 360 story by Britain Eakin, “PTAB Says Inability To Pay Legal Fees No Reason To Deny IPR,” reports that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has agreed to review Dareltech LLC's "selfie stick" patent, rejecting the company's argument that since it can't afford to pay for counsel, Microsoft's inter partes review challenge should be denied.  The decision instituting IPR, the board said Dareltech's inability to pay to defend its patent doesn't qualify as a reason for the board to exercise its discretion to deny review, as the company had argued.

"Patent owner's current financial circumstances are not sufficient reason to preclude petitioner from pursuing its statutory rights to challenge the patentability of the claims," the decision said.  Dareltech had asserted that its lead counsel doesn't participate in post-grant matters, and that its backup counsel had been representing the company in other matters pro bono, but is unable to devote the time and resources to this IPR.

Additionally, Dareltech argued that it incurred expenses to prosecute the patent family, develop and commercialize the claimed invention without significant revenue and defend related IPRs, and so the board should deny review.  But the board was unmoved.  The PTAB also shot down Dareltech's argument that the board should deny the petition because it has no district court dispute with Microsoft, which it contends is acting as a proxy for Chinese technology company Xiaomi.