Appeals court kills the dirty trick of using Indian tribes as a front for patent trolls and claiming sovereign immunity

The holding that IPR is a mere agency proceeding rather than a quasi-lawsuit is shaky. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Supreme Court grants review to reconsider that.

And if IPR is indeed a quasi-lawsuit, then tribal sovereign immunity is back on the table, which means a potential death knell for tribal sovereign immunity is back on the table.