PTAB Presentation Regarding Director Institution – Slides and Rough Transcript
By Adam Cook, Christian Roberts, and Matt Johnson - On October 29th, Acting Chief Judge Deshpande and Vice Chief Judge Kim discussed Director institution of AIA trials, where the Director will make all institution decisions (on both discretionary, non-discretionary,...
Divergent Claim Construction Results in Discretionary Denial
By Evan Tassis and Matt Johnson - In a recent decision, Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart granted Patent Owner’s request for discretionary denial in Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Inc. v. Nivagen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., IPR2025-00893. While some factors weighed...
Settled Expectations Insufficient To Prevent IPR Review
By Mike Lavine - On September 4, 2025, the USPTO’s Acting Director declined H2 Intellect LLC’s request for discretionary denial of an IPR petition filed by Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. Central to the decision was the PTAB’s analysis of “settled expectations”—the idea that...
Director Takes On All Institution Duties
By Matt Johnson - On October 17, Director Squires announced that he will assume responsibility for all post‑grant trial institution decisions. When the Director determines that a petition warrants institution, the matter will be assigned to a three‑judge APJ panel to...
PTAB Issues Notice of Discretionary Denial Rulemaking
By Matt Johnson - On October 17th, the PTAB issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding criteria for the Office to apply when making discretionary denial determinations. The proposed rule would: Require an IPR petitioner to file a stipulation not to pursue any...