States, such as through state universities, often own patents. Typically, state sovereign immunity shields a state from being sued by private parties, such as in a lawsuit brought by a party seeking declaratory judgement that the state-owned patents are invalid.
In the case of Regents of the University of Minnesota v. LSI Corp., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that state sovereign immunity does not apply to inter partes patent reviews under the America Invents Act. Pursuant to this decision, third parties may thus challenge the validity of state owned patents in AIA inter partes review proceedings.
