USPTO Implements Pre-Hearing Conferences for PTAB Oral Hearings, Announces First Rocky Mountain Community Engagement Office

On Friday, December 12, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced an update to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Trial Practice Guide implementing a requirement for parties to participate in a pre-hearing conference 15 days prior to America Invents Act (AIA) oral hearings in cases instituted by the USPTO Director.

According to a USPTO press release, the purpose of the pre-trial hearing conference will be for the Board to guide the parties as to which issues they should address, as well as to give parties a chance to explain the issues they would like to focus on at the oral hearing.

The Board will address issues including claim construction, reason to combine prior art teachings, or objective indicia of nonobviousness, according to examples provided by the press release. Stakeholder feedback will be accepted and a USPTO Hour will be held to explain the new process further.

The announcement is the latest in a series of measures USPTO Director John Squires and his Deputy Director Coke Morgan Stewart, while serving as Acting Director, have implemented since taking office this year to streamline and reform PTAB processes. A pending Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) drew more than 11,000 comments and would more formally overhaul PTAB proceedings.

Montana Community Engagement Office

In a separate USPTO announcement, on Monday, the Office revealed that Montana will be the site of the first of several new USPTO “community engagement offices” in the Rocky Mountain Region to replace the Rocky Mountain Regional Office, which the Office said in October it would be permanently closing.

A press release explained that the USPTO’s report to Congress in December 2024 indicated that regional physical office space was less necessary due to the planned establishment of community outreach offices and the popularity of agency outreach efforts. “A typical regional office requires more than $1 million of leased office space and overhead expenses,” said the USPTO release.

In an op-ed published by IPWatchdog in October, however, Russ Slifer, former USPTO Deputy Director, pushed back on that justification for the closure, claiming that it “grossly misrepresents the truth.” Slifer added: ” In reality, the office served as the duty station for hundreds of examiners and judges, most working remotely but formally tied to Denver. Eliminating the office leaves these employees in limbo, uncertain about their future duty stations and career stability. Such disruption erodes morale, weakens the examiner corps and destabilizes the broader patent system.”

In a statement announcing the Montana location today, the Office said that Montana State University will host the new community engagement office. The first such office was opened this year at the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property and has so far been a success, said Squires in the statement.

“Montana is emerging as a national leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, with the Bozeman-­Gallatin Valley region serving as the anchor of the state’s growing tech hub corridor,” the press release added, noting that the number of patent applications filed by Montana-based inventors between 2019 and 2023 more than doubled and the U.S. Department of Commerce designated Montana as a federal Tech Hub in 2023.

The University will be responsible for working with the USPTO’s Office of Public Engagement to carry out its strategic direction and to tailor the USPTO’s initiatives and programs to the area and its stakeholders.

“The core idea is simple, we are placing USPTO-enabled engagement nodes into the heart of start-up, university, incubator, and innovation-ecosystem communities,” said Squires. “In doing so, we’ll be ‘at the top of the funnel’ for ideas, brands, and inventions—not by replacing our regional examination infrastructure, but by complementing it with a nimble, cost-effective, and deeply embedded presence.”