Trump admin urged to voice support for USPTO’s proposed PTAB rule

Trump admin urged to voice support for USPTO’s proposed PTAB rule

The 22 conservative leaders who wrote to the Trump administration said that ‘the proposal will help restore fairness, efficiency, and predictability to patent adjudication’.

A letter was sent to the Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, and Chief of Staff to President Trump, Susie Wiles, by a group of conservative leaders supporting the U.S. Patent and Trademark’s Office’s (USPTO’s) notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) titled ‘Revision to Rules of Practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’ issued in October.

The rules of practice are modified by the NPRM for inter partes reviews (IPRs) before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) with the specified goal being “to focus IPR proceedings on patent claims that have not previously been challenged in litigation or where prior litigation was resolved at an early stage”. December 2 was the deadline for comments and the Office has received a total 11,442 submissions.

The comment period was extended by 15 days in November by USPTO Director John Squires in response to stakeholders’ requests. The initial deadline for comment was November 17 which was extended to December 2.

The proposed rule will expand upon USPTO Director John Squires’ emphasis on “born-strong” patents and quiet title. A press release issued on the NPRM in October reportedly said that under current practice, “the Office is concerned that even extremely strong patents become unreliable when subject to serial or parallel challenges.”

IP holders and practitioners have broadly welcomed the rules whereas those who want to preserve the option to easily challenge patents have opposed them.

The 22 conservative leaders who wrote to the Trump administration reportedly said, “The proposal will help restore fairness, efficiency, and predictability to patent adjudication.”