| Patent Trial and Appeal Board | | USPTO advances proposed rule governing PTAB inter partes review practices Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking public input on a proposal to limit repeated challenges to patents. The Office is concerned that even extremely strong patents become unreliable when subject to serial or parallel challenges. Congress gave the USPTO Director broad discretion to identify circumstances when inter partes review (IPR) proceedings would or would not benefit the patent system. And repeated challenges do not benefit the patent system. The Office, therefore, is proposing a rule that would focus IPR proceedings before PTAB on patent claims that have not been previously challenged and patent claims challenged in prior litigation that settled at an early stage. The proposed rule is intended to enhance fairness, efficiency, and predictability in IPR proceedings. Specifically, the proposed rule would: - Require an IPR petitioner to file a stipulation not to pursue invalidity challenges under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 or 103 in other forums;
- Provide that the USPTO will not institute an IPR when the USPTO or another forum already has adjudicated patentability or validity of the claims;
- Provide that the USPTO will not institute an IPR when another proceeding is likely to determine patentability or validity of the claims under §§ 102 or 103 first; and
- Permit the USPTO to institute an IPR notwithstanding a prior adjudication or expected earlier determination on patentability or validity when exceptional circumstances exist.
The deadline to comment is November 17, 2025. All comments must be submitted in writing through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. | | | Having trouble accessing links in this email? Your email server security software may be altering the links. Contact your IT or email administrator and ask them to "allow-list" links-1.govdelivery.com and links-2.govdelivery.com to ensure you can access all content in this communication. Stay connected with the USPTO by subscribing to regular email updates. Visit our subscription center at www.uspto.gov/subscribe to update or change your email preferences. This email was sent from an unmonitored mailbox. To contact us, please visit our website www.uspto.gov/about/contacts. To ensure that you continue to receive our news and notices, please modify your email filters to allow mail from subscriptioncenter@subscriptions.uspto.gov. | | | |
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