Two’s Company, Three’s a (Discretionary) Crowd
By Carl Kukkonen - On January 9, 2026, the USPTO designated a Director decision in IPR2025-00258 as precedential, offering guidance on when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) will exercise its discretion to deny institution of inter partes review (IPR)...
Licensing Considerations in Informative Discretionary Denial Decisions
By Sarah Geers - On January 9, the USPTO designated as informational two recent Director decisions involving licensing activities, highlighting the evolving nature of “settled expectations” in discretionary denial determinations. The decisions—Apple Inc. v. Allani...
INFORMATIVE: Conflicting Claim Construction Positions Result in Denial
By Laura Vining and Matt Johnson - USPTO Director John Squires issued a decision on November 5, 2025, vacating a prior institution decision and denying institution in Tesla, Inc. v. Intellectual Ventures II LLC, IPR2025-00340, Paper 18. Director Squires denied the...
INFORMATIVE: No Discretionary Denial Where Prior IPR Suggests Material Error By Office
By David Linden and Dave Maiorana - The Acting Director ssued a decision declining to exercise discretionary denial in three related inter partes reviews (“IPRs”) filed by Padagis US LLC (“Padagis”): IPR2025-00464, IPR2025-00465, and IPR2025-00466 (collectively, “the...
Chief Judge Signals Changes May Be Coming for the Ordinary Observer Test
By Adam Cook and John Evans - On February 2, 2026, a split Federal Circuit panel affirmed summary judgment of no design-patent infringement issued by a Maine federal court. Range of Motion Prods., LLC v. Armaid Co. Inc., No. 2023-2427, 2026 WL 261890 (Fed. Cir. Feb....