News & Analysis as of

Patents Director of the USPTO

WilmerHale

PTAB/USPTO Update - April 2025

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On March 10, John Squires was officially nominated to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office....more

Jones Day

PTAB Announces a Bifurcated Process for Consideration of IPR and PGR Petitions

Jones Day on

A new interim process for the acting director to exercise discretion as to whether to institute an inter partes review ("IPR") or a post-grant review ("PGR") was announced on March 26, 2025, in which discretionary...more

Kilpatrick

PTAB: Initial Fallout from the New Director Guidance on Discretionary Denial of Institution

Kilpatrick on

Last week, my partner Justin Krieger published an alert regarding Acting Director Stewart's new guidance on discretionary denial. Shortly thereafter, Acting Director Stewart issued a decision vacating institution of several...more

Jones Day

PTAB Announces Bifurcated Process for Consideration of Discretionary Denial Issues

Jones Day on

A new interim process for the Director to exercise discretion as to whether to institute an inter partes review(IPR) or a post grant review (PGR) was announced on March 26, 2025, in which discretionary considerations and...more

Foley Hoag LLP

PTAB Changes Procedure for Determining Discretionary Denials

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Key Takeaways: - The Director, in consultation with at least three APJs, will now decide the discretionary denial question, rather than having the merits panel decide the issue. - Discretionary denial will have separate...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Reexamination of Expired Patents

Takeaways - - Expired patents may be eligible for reexamination. - Owner’s options during reexamination of an expired patent are severely limited. Similar to reexamination practice, which has long allowed reexamination...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

PTAB Year in Review – USPTO Rulemaking in 2024 Related to PTAB Practice and Procedures

The final year of Director Vidal’s tenure as the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was a busy year for rulemaking at the Office. Since late 2023, five Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs) directly related to...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2024 PTAB Year in Review: Analysis & Trends – 2024 PTAB Case Highlights

Abuse of Process and/or Sanctions – 37 C.F.R. § 42.12 - Spectrum Solutions LLC v. Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics, LLC, IPR2021-00847, IPR2021-00850, IPR2021-00854, IPR2021-00857 & IPR2021-00860 - Decision...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2024 PTAB Year in Review: Analysis & Trends

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the intellectual property landscape. In 2024, several developments affecting PTAB practice emerged, from new rulemaking at the USPTO to key...more

Erise IP

Eye on IPRs: November 2024: USPTO Director to Step Down, Did Fed. Circuit DISH Asks Full Fed. Cir. Panel to Reconsider Vacating...

Erise IP on

Every month, Erise’s patent attorneys review the latest inter partes review cases and news to bring you the stories that you should know about: USPTO Director Vidal to Step Down - On November 12, Under Secretary of...more

Erise IP

Eye on IPRs, October 2024: USPTO Issues Final PTAB Procedure Rules

Erise IP on

Every month, Erise’s patent attorneys review the latest inter partes review cases and news to bring you the stories that you should know about: USPTO Issues Final Rules on PTAB Procedure - The U.S. Patent and...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Director Review Under the USPTO's Final Rule – Patents: Post-Grant Podcast

Troutman Pepper Locke on

Please join our Intellectual Property and Health Sciences practice groups for our podcast series focused on strategies, trends, and other happenings in post-grant proceedings. In this episode, Troutman Pepper attorneys Andy...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

USPTO Issues Final Rule on Director Review of PTAB Decisions

On October 1, 2024, the USPTO published a new final rule, Rules Governing Director Review of Patent Trial and Appeal Board Decisions. 89 Fed. Reg. 79744 (October 1, 2024). The new rule codifies many aspects of the PTAB’s most...more

Erise IP

Eye on IPRs, August 2024: Federal Circuit Rules on Arguments Not Raised in Request for Rehearing, USPTO Director’s Potential...

Erise IP on

Every month, Erise’s patent attorneys review the latest inter partes review cases and news to bring you the stories that you should know about: Federal Circuit Addresses Waiver of Argument Not Raised in Request for...more

McDermott Will & Emery

PTO Collaborates With UK Counterpart to Address Standard-Essential Patents

McDermott Will & Emery on

On June 3, 2024, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Director Kathi Vidal and Chief Executive Officer of the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Adam Williams signed...more

McDermott Will & Emery

How Close Are They? PTO Looking for “Significant Relationship” Between Sequential IPR Petitioners

Addressing the issue of whether to discretionally deny a petition for inter partes review (IPR) under the General Plastics factors when there is no “significant relationship” between the petitioners, the Director of the US...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Drawing Can Teach Claim Limitations If “Clear on Its Face”

McDermott Will & Emery on

Addressing when a drawing in a prior art reference includes a teaching that is “clear on its face,” the Director of the US Patent & Trademark Office vacated and remanded a Patent Trial & Appeal Board decision denying...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

What’s in a Name? Why Reexamination Is Not a Re-Examination

Long before the America Invents Act (AIA) created the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) patent revocation proceedings, the patentability of one or more claims of any patent could be reviewed via Ex Parte Reexamination...more

McDermott Will & Emery

New PTAB Claim Construction? Give the Parties Review Opportunity

McDermott Will & Emery on

The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Director vacated Final Written Decisions issued by the Patent Trial & Appeal Board that presented a sua sponte construction of a claim term in dispute, holding that the parties were not...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2023 PTAB Year in Review: Analysis & Trends: 2023 PTAB Case Highlights

Precedential Decisions - Penumbra, Inc. v. RapidPulse, Inc., IPR2021-01466, Paper 34 (March 10, 2023) (designated: November 15, 2023) (regarding prior art status under AIA § 102) The Director designated as precedential...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

2023 PTAB Year in Review: Editors’ Introduction

A review of 2023 reveals it was an active and impactful year in shaping the policy and practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, all three...more

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC

Latest Federal Court Cases - January 2024 #4

Roku, Inc. v. International Trade Commission, Appeal No. 2022-1386 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 19, 2024) In an appeal from the International Trade Commission (the “Commission”), the Federal Circuit addressed a number of findings...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Sins of the Fathers? Grandparent IPR Factors into Current Institution Decision

US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Director Kathi Vidal vacated and remanded a Patent Trial & Appeal Board decision denying institution of an inter partes review (IPR) because the Board improperly applied the precedential...more

McDermott Will & Emery

No Need for Unnecessary RPI Determinations

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The US Patent & Trademark Office Director partially vacated the Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s real-party-in-interest (RPI) determination because that determination was not necessary to resolve the underlying proceeding....more

McDermott Will & Emery

No Snipe Hunting: AIA Adherence Means No Interference (Proceedings)

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The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that patents and applications that have only ever contained claims with an effective filing date after March 16, 2013—i.e., pure America Invents Act (AIA) patents—may...more

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