USPTO Releases Narrower PTAB Rules Package, But Further Changes Could Still Be Coming

In April 2023, the USPTO issued a rulemaking proposal that detailed a potentially sweeping revamp of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings, with possible changes including the codification and expansion of the Board's discretionary denial practices under NHK-Fintiv as well as the creation of a standing requirement. USPTO Director Kathi Vidal later clarified that this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) was overbroad by design to gather as much feedback as possible and indicated that the final rules package would likely be narrower. Earlier this month, the agency released that promised Notice of Proposed Rulemaking—a more targeted package that indeed covers just a "subset of topics from the ANPRM". The final proposal includes rules concerning "serial" and "parallel" petitions as well as validity arguments previously addressed by the USPTO, also creating a separate briefing process for discretionary denials and requiring the filing of