USPTO Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart recently issued a decision discretionarily denying five petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed by iRhythm against patents owned by Welch Allyn based on a factor that had not...more
The USPTO has launched a sweeping recalibration of its post-grant proceedings at the PTAB, signaling a decisive pivot back toward discretionary denials of patent challenges. With the rescission of prior procedural guidance, a...more
On January 14, 2025, the Federal Circuit in Lynk Labs Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. clarified that inter partes review challenges may be “based upon published patent applications, and such published patent applications...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) implemented 37 CFR § 42.75 on October 31, 2024, establishing a formal framework for Director Review of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings. During her tenure, Director...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has released new guidance on patent subject matter eligibility (the Guidance), with a particular focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies. As noted...more
The US Supreme Court’s June 28, 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless Inc. v. Department of Commerce overruled the forty-year-old Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc....more
7/5/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
USPTO
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) this week issued a memorandum related to guidelines for examining patent claims with means-plus-function and step-plus-function limitations under 35 USC § 112(f). The memorandum...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has released comprehensive guidance on inventorship for artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted inventions. This guidance, instigated by the executive order Safe, Secure, and...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued an update to its procedures for interim Director Review (DR) of decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), evidencing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal’s efforts...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on April 20 seeking comments on proposed changes to America Invents Act trial proceedings before the Patent Trial and...more
US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Katherine K. Vidal recently designated as precedential a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) in IPR2020-01234, which granted rehearing and modified the...more
Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Kathi Vidal recently designated as precedential a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rejecting the petitioner’s invalidity challenge, since it was based...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board correctly considered evidence of multiple witnesses to be sufficient in corroborating actual reduction to practice when...more
The PTAB Digest 2021/2022 provides an overview of PTAB statistics, trends, and updates that impact strategies and business decisions for patent owners and petitioners alike.
Significant developments included the...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently granted the institution of an inter partes review in Samsung Electronics Co. v. Staton Techiya, LLC, despite the existence of a parallel proceeding in the US District Court for the...more
The USPTO has issued interim procedures curbing the PTAB’s discretionary denials over post-grant proceedings associated with parallel ITC proceedings or district court litigation. ...more
In Alarm.com Inc. v. Hirshfeld, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that decisions by the US Patent and Trademark Office Director vacating ex parte reexamination based on estoppel may be subject to judicial...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office is implementing a pilot program to allow participating applicants to defer responding to subject matter eligibility rejections until the earlier of a final disposition of the application, or...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced on December 4 a rule change to clarify and expand exceptions to small entity status, which primarily affects the fees that the USPTO charges patent applicants. ...more
It has been argued that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) cannot engage in rulemaking through decisions made by its administrative patent judges (APJs), even if those decisions are made precedential, as APJs...more
12/28/2020
/ Administrative Patent Judges ,
America Invents Act ,
Article III ,
Burden of Persuasion ,
Burden of Proof ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Motion to Amend ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Standing ,
Substitute Claims ,
USPTO
In a recent opinion in ESIP Series 2, LLC v. Puzhen Life USA, LLC, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined that 35 USC 314(d), which bars appellate review of US Patent and Trademark Office decisions to...more
President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act or the Act) into law on March 27. The CARES Act aims to offer economic relief to companies and their employees due...more
4/8/2020
/ CARES Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Federal Loans ,
Financial Stimulus ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Relief Measures ,
SBA ,
SBA Lending Programs ,
Small Business ,
Startups ,
Unemployment Benefits ,
USPTO
As of 2019, post-grant proceedings have been in use for seven years. Designed as an alternative to district court litigation, post-grant proceedings have offered litigants a faster and more cost-effective forum for resolving...more
A panel of the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board has identified “limited circumstances” in which a patent challenger can join its own inter partes review petition to add new issues. Parties seeking to join their own petitions...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on January 4 announced the “2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance” and “Computer-Implemented Functional Claim Limitations Guidance” for examiners and administrative...more