To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: Patent licenses, technology transfer agreements, and non-disclosure agreements often include forum selection clauses as a matter of course, and sometimes include an arbitration clause requiring private arbitration of disputes. Petitioners and patent owners both will want to know: Can these clauses preclude a challenge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)? The federal district courts routinely enforce the parties’ selected forum in patent lawsuits. The PTAB, however, has been reluctant to do so for inter partes and post-grant review proceedings. The Federal Circuit has not yet ruled on whether the PTAB must directly consider and enforce forum selection clauses. Patent owners seeking to avoid the PTAB may have recourse through the district courts, but results on this path are uncertain. Petitioners have frequently been successful in maintaining challenges at the PTAB, despite prior agreements that include forum selection or arbitration clauses. Patent owners who want a contractual bar against PTAB challenges must tread carefully.