Posts in Government

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday, August 7, affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision invalidating certain claims of WAG Acquisition, LLC’s patent for a streaming media technology patent as anticipated. Judge Stark authored the opinion of the court. 

An Appeals Review Panel (ARP) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s ) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) today issued a decision on sua sponte rehearing reversing a PTAB decision that had itself reversed an examiner’s rejection of claims for obviousness-type double patenting (OTDP). The decision has been designated as precedential and was authored by USPTO Director John A. Squires, PTAB Chief Judge Kalyan Deshpande, and PTAB Acting Deputy Chief Judge Michelle Ankenbrand.

As the institution rate of inter partes reviews (IPRs) has plunged under U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Squires, parties have increasingly turned to ex parte reexaminations (EPRs) to challenge patents. The number of requests for EPRs has skyrocketed. The number of EPR requests more than doubled between 2020 (198 requests) and 2025 (481 requests). See USPTO Reexam Statistics. Based on the number of requests for EPRs (831) assigned a filing date through Q3 of 2026, we are on track to have more than 1,100 requests for EPRs filed in FY2026. See USPTO Operational Statistics.

Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, has introduced a bill to designate courtroom 201 at the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building located at 717 Madison Place NW, Washington, DC, as the “Pauline Newman Courtroom”. Room 201 is the main courtroom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Wednesday issued an opinion authored by Chief District Judge Cathy Bissoon of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation, affirming a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision that Lululemon had shown the challenged claims of Nike, Inc.’s patent to be unpatentable.

Yesterday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued its latest study detailing the economic contributions of industries heavily reliant upon intellectual property rights, concluding that such IP-intensive industries contributed 44% of the United States’ entire gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024. Despite several key findings reflecting the rising value of IP rights to employee wages and job creation, the USPTO’s report noted significant trade deficits run by the United States relative to their foreign counterparts in commodity exports across several IP-intensive industries.

Peter-Anthony Pappas, the former Director of Intellectual Property Policy for the U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, was sworn in yesterday as a Member of the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) by ITC Chairman, Brett Doyle. Pappas was nominated by President Donald Trump in June to join the ITC for a term expiring June 16, 2035.

What value is a patent that expires before it issues? Until recently, that question seemed wholly academic. In In re Forest, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) answered it directly: A patent that issues after its expiration date has no value; it provides neither exclusionary rights nor provisional rights. In the court’s view, the applicant has no cognizable interest in the patent or the application on which it would be based.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Friday affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision denying Pfizer’s motions to amend two patent claims. This is Pfizer’s a second appeal following a March 2024 precedential CAFC ruling that partially vacated and remanded a previous PTAB decision in favor of Sanofi Pasteur, Inc.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Thursday affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruling for Samsung Electronics, finding the Board did not violate the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and that substantial evidence supported its findings. Samsung filed for inter partes review (IPR) of claims 1–5, 7–9, 14, and 20 of G+ Communications’ U.S. Patent No. 10,736,130, which is titled “Method and device for uplink control signal transmission, user terminal, and storage medium.” The PTAB ultimately found that U.S. Patent No. 10,615,925 (“Kwak”) anticipated all of the challenged claims, and G+ Communications appealed.

Kahoot AS! filed a petition for writ of certiorari on July 24 asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) “settled expectations” doctrine for denying inter partes review (IPR) requests is authorized under the patent statute. The petition also asked the High Court whether 35 U.S.C. § 314(d) bars judicial review of that question.

Current U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Chief Administrative Officer Anne Mendez has reportedly been appointed Acting Deputy Director of the USPTO, following Coke Morgan Stewart’s announcement this week that she will be leaving her post early. As Chief Administrative Officer, Mendez heads up all “administrative service support functions” for the Office, which includes “human capital strategy, human resource management, telework policy and programs, facilities management, safety and security, transportation, and asset and records management.”

On Tuesday, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services released its annual report on artificial intelligence patenting, IFI Insights: Inventing AI. According to the report, worldwide AI patent grants reached 107,279 in 2025, marking the first time the total has surpassed 100,000 in a single year. The figure also represents an 83% increase over the past three years. Globally, AI patent applications reached 209,518 in 2025, of which 23% related to generative AI and 9% related to agentic AI, which is up from 5% in IFI’s previous study.

IPWatchdog has learned that U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Deputy Director Coke Morgan Stewart sent an email to USPTO executive staff today informing them that she will be leaving the Office to return to the private sector. Stewart reportedly told Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and USPTO Director John Squires earlier today that she will be leaving by the end of this week.