What is the effect of Trial Section binding precedent on the rest of the Board and the rest of the United States Patent and Trademark Office?
A decision supported by an opinion that is determined by the Trial Section to be binding precedent of the Trial Section normally will contain the following caption at the top of the first page of the opinion: The opinion in support of the decision being entered today is binding precedent of the Interference Trial Section of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The opinion is otherwise not binding precedent of the Board. The significance of the caption is that the opinion has been read and agreed to by all eight administrative patent judges assigned to the Trial Section and is precedent which all eight will apply in interferences which come before them, as individual judges or as members of panels assigned to handle a particular interference. As of June 1, 2001, sixty-one administrative patent judges are members of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences.1 In ex parte matters, the judges decide matters almost exclusively in panels of three judges. In interference matters
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