Patent Examination and Operations
John Squires Confirmed as USPTO Director, With Serious Work Ahead
Last Thursday, the Senate confirmed John Squires as Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), advancing him alongside a slate of 47 other Trump Administration nominees in a single vote...
Repackaging the Same Flawed Ideas on Patent Quality
This month, the IP Policy Institute at the University of Akron School of Law released a policy brief, “Measuring Patent Quality and Reducing the Backlog at the USPTO,” presenting it as new empiric...
Squires Emphasizes Patent Quality at Senate Confirmation Hearing
On May 21st, USPTO Director-nominee John Squires appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing, alongside three other nominees to serve in the Trump administration. While m...
GAO Report Confirms Systemic Patent Quality Issues at USPTO
Last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a patent quality report finding “persistent examination and quality issues” at the USPTO. The report highlights systemic issues wit...
The Overlooked USPTO Subsidy
President Trump and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick have vocalized concerns about China’s anticompetitive trade practices and the need to address them with an all-of-government approach, includ...
John Squires Nominated as Next USPTO Director
On March 10th, President Trump officially nominated John Squires as his next USPTO Director, according to a notice on Congress.gov and as widely reported today. Squires, whose nomination is now referr...
As Trump Nears Patent Director Decision, Preserving PTAB, Cracking Down on TPLF Remain Critical Priorities
As we enter the second month of Trump's second term, speculation about the next USPTO Director has intensified. Given the Administration’s focus on curbing unfair foreign competition from China, the...
New Report Demonstrates Need for Robust Post-Grant Validity Review
In September, the Sunwater Institute published a report analyzing patent quality in the United States. With significant implications for ongoing policy debates on Capitol Hill and beyond, it is import...
How the End of Chevron Deference Is (Or Isn’t?) Reshaping IP Regulation
In a decision that reverberated throughout the regulatory world, the Supreme Court ruled on June 28th, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, that federal courts may no longer defer to an agency’s...