Whether a relator can avoid the public disclosure bar by stitching together public disclosures

QUESTIONS PRESENTED The False Claims Act’s public disclosure bar plays the critical role of preventing “parasitic” qui tam lawsuits filed by plaintiffs who “learn of the fraud through public channels.” Graham Cnty. Soil & Water Conservation Dist. v. United States ex rel. Wilson, 559 U.S. 280, 294, 296 n.16 (2010). These public channels include “a Federal . . . administrative hearing in which the Government ... is a party” and a “Federal report, hearing, audit, or investigation.” 31 U.S.C. § The questions presented are: 1. Whether a relator can avoid the public disclosure bar by “stitching together’ public disclosures. 2. Whether inter partes review (IPR)—which this Court and the Federal Circuit have described as a hearing between the federal government and the patent owner—constitutes a channel for public disclosure, either because: (i) the government is a “party” to IPRs, or (ii)an IPR is a “Federal ... hearing.”