The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal agencies are not “persons” who may take advantage of administrative procedures for challenging patents.
The agency in question, the US Postal Service (USPS), attempted to use administrative procedures from the America Invents Act to challenge a patent held by Return Mail, Inc. USPS had originally tried to license a patented process for undeliverable mail, but Return Mail and USPS could not come to an agreement. USPS introduced a new address-change process for handling undeliverable mail in 2006.