PTAB Judges Alarmed By Squires Moves To Limit Their Role

Law360, Theresa Schliep , October 27, 2025

With U.S. Patent and Trademark Office leadership limiting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's oversight of patent validity disputes, current judges for the tribunal say they are distressed by the recent moves to curb their authority and are looking for work elsewhere amid the instability.

PTAB Discretionary Denials, Reexam Bids Way Up: Report

Law360, Ryan Davis , October 14, 2025

The number of Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions that were denied for discretionary reasons reached a record level in the third quarter of 2025 — more than 200% higher than in all of last year — and patent reexamination requests also spiked, according to a new report from Unified Patents.

Adapting to USPTOs Tighter Inter Partes Review Rules

Law360, Charles Liu and Brian Ferguson , August 21, 2025

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a memorandum Petitioners will no longer be able to rely on Federal Circuit law and will have to identify where every challenged claim limitation is found in patents or printed publications and may no longer rely on general knowledge or AAPA to fill in gaps.

What Patent Claim Invalidity Means in Different Forums

Law360, Jason Hoffman , August 18, 2025

In patent litigation, "invalidity" is a term of art, but not all findings of invalidity are created equal. Depending on the forum and procedural posture, a claim that has been invalidated may still be asserted elsewhere, and it may or may not cast a shadow over similar claims from the same patent. This article breaks down the three key venues where patent claims are commonly invalidated and explains what each type of invalidity actually means.

PTAB Petitions To Get More Scrutiny Under New Policy

Law360, Ryan Davis , August 14, 2025

USPTO Acting Director Coke Morgan Steward announced in a late July memo that the office will begin enforcing a rule — which had often been waived over the past five years — that inter partes review petitioners must specify where each element of a patent being challenged is found in earlier patents or printed publications.

USPTOs AI Tool Redefines Design Patent Landscape

Law360, Matthew Epstein , August 14, 2025

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has introduced DesignVision, a new artificial intelligence-powered image search tool now available to design patent examiners.

USPTO Caps Briefs At 20 Pages For Discretionary Reviews

Law360, Dani Kass , August 13, 2025

Patent owners and challengers will be limited to 20-page briefs when arguing over whether a Patent Trial and Appeal Board petition should be discretionarily denied. Images are counted in those 20 pages.

USPTO Ex Parte Reexamination Could Become More Popular

Law360, Stephen Ball , August 7, 2025

Ex parte reexaminations offer a more successful and effective alternative for challenging patent validity over the long preferred IPRs due to recent developments.

A Patent Tax - Key Implications for Patent Holders

The National Law Review, Brian J. Stevens, Barnabas T. Fekete of ArentFox Schiff LLP , July 30, 2025

The US Department of Commerce is reportedly considering a proposal to overhaul the current patent maintenance fee structure, proposing a shift from the established flat-fee system to an annual, value-based tax of between 1% and 5% of a patent’s assessed value each year, supplementing rather than replacing existing maintenance fees.

The Biggest IP Agency Developments Of 2025 - Midyear Report

Law360, Theresa Schliep , July 15, 2025

Several significant agency developments have occurred during the first half of 2025.