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ARTICLE · 31 DECEMBER 2025

Everything Old Is New Again At The USPTO

FBT Gibbons
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Over the years, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has instituted policies and procedures to help manage the workflow of the agency.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Estelle Tsevdos
Estelle Tsevdos

Over the years, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has instituted policies and procedures to help manage the workflow of the agency. For instance, when interferences were inundating the agency, sudden interest in precise procedural practices to help dismiss some of the proposed interference requests were implemented in the early 1990s into the early 2000s. Furthermore, many guidelines were issued over these past years to various examining groups to help these groups with overwhelming numbers of pending patent applications.

Recently, the USPTO Director, John Squires, released a memorandum on October 17, 2025, indicating that requests for Post Grant Reviews (PGR) and Inter Parties Review (IPR) would be subject to discretionary dismissals at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In fact, on October 31, 2025, the Director denied 13 pending IPR proceedings without explanation.

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