On October 29, 2018, the Office published a request for comments
("RFC") on a proposed procedure for motions to amend
filed in inter partes reviews, post-grant reviews, and covered
business method patent reviews (collectively AIA trials) before the
PTAB. The Office received 49 comments in response to this RFC as of
December 21, 2018 (the closing date for comments). The majority of
comments supported the Office taking action in relation to MTA
practice and procedures in AIA trials. Several comments suggested
that the Office should reconsider the timelines of due dates
presented in the initial RFC. Other comments suggested further
revisions, discussed in greater detail below.
This notice provides information relating to the pilot program
for a new MTA practice in response to the stakeholder comments
received. As discussed below, the pilot program provides a patent
owner with two options not previously available. The first option
is that a patent owner may choose to