Director Terminates Proceeding Based on Inconsistent Testimony
By David Linden, Dave Maiorana, Thane Bonnett,* and Pranita Dhungana - On October 1, 2025, USPTO Director John Squires issued his first Director Review decision, terminating in whole IPR2024-00465 (“IPR465”) based on unreliable and inconsistent expert testimony. In...
Discretionary Decision Statistics Update
By Adam J. Cook, Daniel C. Sloan, and Matt Johnson - The October 17 Memo from Director Squires marked the end of a distinct discretionary denial era, the Interim Era. Per the memo, as of October 20, all institution decisions (discretionary, non-discretionary, and...
PTAB Issues First Summary Institution (Denial) Decisions
By Matt Johnson - On October 31st, the Director issued his first set of summary decisions on IPR institutions, denying institution of 13 cases without comment in a single document.
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...