In a rare expanded panel majority opinion, the PTAB granted a Request for Rehearing allowing for the institution and joinder of a second IPR petition filed by the same party that corrected an error in a first IPR petition. Zhongshan Broad Ocean Motor Co., Ltd., et al. v. Nidec Motor Corp., IPR2015-00762 (October 5, 2015) (Paper 16) at 9. The majority based its decision on 35 U.S.C. § 315(c), which allows “the Director, in his or her discretion, [to] join as a party to that inter partes review any person who properly files a petition under section 311 that the Director, after receiving a preliminary response under section 313 or the expiration of the time for filing such a response, determines warrants the institution of an inter partes review under section 314.”
