Posts
DOJ Misses the Mark on Injunctions
On July 11, 2025, the non-practicing entity (NPE) Radian Memory Systems LLC dropped a request for injunctive relief against Samsung after the defendant provided new evidence that undercut the immediat...
Don’t Get it Twisted: New Discretionary Denials Process Hurts American Inventors
Following March’s announcement of a new interim, bifurcated review process for America Invents Act (AIA) petitions, the USPTO Acting Director has given herself largely unchecked authority to discret...
No, IPRs and PGRs Aren’t Interchangeable
In his recent responses to Questions for the Record (QFRs) following his Senate confirmation hearing, USPTO Director-nominee John Squires reaffirmed the value of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTA...
The USPTO Acting Director Uses “Settled Expectations” to Violate the Rule of Law
The America Invents Act (AIA) created a system of “inter partes review” (IPR), which was intended to make it easier for alleged patent infringers to challenge the validity of patents they’re acc...
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...
Federal Judges Admit Lack of Technical Expertise, Making the Case for an Accessible PTAB
At the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section spring conference at the start of May, a group of federal judges overseeing complex patent lawsuits admitted they are not experts ...
Acting Director Stewart Issues a One Page Decision Denying Institution
In the MediaTek v. Daedalus IPRs, there's been some developments. In one IPR, the PTAB instituted the challenge over a request from the patent owner for discretionary denial. The APJs carefully went...
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...
Federal Circuit Weakens ITC Domestic Industry Requirement
In a ruling with serious consequences for patent infringement claims brought before the International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently broadened th...
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...
Following Fintiv Reinstatement, the ITC Should Emphasize Patent Validity Review
In recent weeks the USPTO has continued to undermine its own review processes at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)––from voiding former Director Kathi Vidal’s guidance that limited the Fi...
New, Illegal, Guidance Means More Arbitrary Denials, Less Accountability at USPTO
Last week, Acting USPTO Director Coke Morgan Stewart accelerated the agency’s recent backslide on policies governing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) by issuing an “interim process” that...