On February 28, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rescinded a memorandum issued in June 2022 by former Director Katherine Vidal (the Vidal Memorandum) that provided guidance on discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or the Board). The now-rescinded Vidal Memorandum limited the situations in which the PTAB could discretionarily deny institution of a post-grant proceeding based on parallel district court litigations. Then, on March 24, 2025, the Board’s Chief Administrative Patent Judge, Scott R. Boalick, issued a new memorandum2 (the Boalick Memorandum) that set forth additional guidance in the absence of the Vidal Memorandum.
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