PTAB/USPTO Update - July 2025

USPTO Leadership:

• On June 12, the nominee for USPTO Director John Squires was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 20-2. His nomination has been placed on the Senate's Executive Calendar and will proceed to a floor vote.
• Christina Hieber will replace Thomas Shaw as the Acting Chief Administrative Trademark Judge on the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

USPTO News:

• On June 13, the USPTO issued a precedential administrative Final Order sanctioning foreign filing firm Stelcore Management Services for failing to comply with the Office's rules governing signatures on official documents. A June 25 press release noted that "[t]he order sanctions respondents and terminates trademark application proceedings in which respondents improperly entered the applicant and attorney signatures and provided false signatory information as well as false attorney information." "[I]mproper signatures made with intent to circumvent the USPTO rules are not correctable and may invalidate the trademark application or registration."
• On June 12, the USPTO announced that it will begin imposing penalties on patent applicants that falsely represent small or micro entity status. By statute, fines may be assessed for up to three times the amount not paid due to the false assertion of entity status.
• On June 9, the USPTO announced that it would terminate the Accelerated Examination program for utility applications, which allowed applicants to petition for accelerated examination of patents pertaining to certain subject matter or based on their age or health. The change is effective July 10.
• On June 9, the USPTO announced that its Southeast Regional Outreach Office would be launched at Office's headquarters in Alexandria, VA instead of in Atlanta, GA as previously announced.
• On June 5, the USPTO announced that it is the first federal agency to implement cloud activity reporting and event logging to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) Cloud Log Aggregation Warehouse (CLAW).

General Notices:

• Statutory Penalties for False Assertions or Certifications of Small and Micro Entity Status, 1536 O.G. __ (July 8, 2025) (providing notice that "[t]he USPTO will begin issuing a combined notice of payment deficiency and order to show cause as to why a fine should not be assessed ('combined notice and order'), when the USPTO makes a preliminary determination that a pending patent application ('application') or patent contains a false assertion or certification [of small or micro entity status] that resulted in the payment ofat least one fee in an unentitled reduced amount.").
• Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Requirements for Patent Applications Containing Nucleotide Sequence and/or Amino Acid Sequence Disclosures, 90 Fed. Reg. 27284 (June 26, 2025) (information collection relating to patent applications containing nucleotide sequence and/or amino acid sequence disclosures after July 1, 2022).
• Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Patent Cooperation Treaty, 90 Fed. Reg. 26555 (June 23, 2025) (information collection involving forms submitted to the Office relating to examination of applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty ("PCT")).
• Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Madrid Protocol, 90 Fed. Reg. 25592 (June 17, 2025) (information collection involving forms submitted to the Office relating to trademark applications submitted under the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks ("Madrid Protocol")).
• Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Practitioner Conduct and Discipline, 90 Fed. Reg. 23918 (June 5, 2025) (information collection relating to forms submitted by suspended or excluded practitioners requesting reinstatement).

Final Rules

• Discontinuation of the Accelerated Examination Program for Utility Applications, 90 Fed. Reg. 24324 (June 10, 2025) [rule becomes effective July 10, 2025] (discontinuing Accelerated Examination program for applications relating to certain subject matter or for patent applicants based on age or health, effective July 10, 2025).
• Partial Replacement of an Earlier National Registration or Registrations by an International Registration, 90 Fed. Reg. 23288 (June 2, 2025) [rule becomes effective July 2, 2025] (modifying U.S. trademark regulations addressing the replacement of a national registration or registrations by an international registration to allow for submission of partial replacement requests, in alignment with the Madrid Protocol, and to require a listing of the goods and/or services for which replacement is requested).

Interim Rules

• There are no new interim rules.

Proposed Rules

• There are no new proposed rules.

Legislation:

• There is no new legislation.

PTAB Decisions:

• New Precedential PTAB Decisions
• • There are no new precedential PTAB decisions.
• New Informative PTAB Decisions
• • CrowdStrike, Inc. v. GoSecure, Inc., IPR2025-00068 & IPR2025-00070, Paper 25 (June 25, 2025) (designated: June 26, 2025) (vacating two decisions granting institution on the same patent based on alternative claim construction theories by finding that the Board abused its discretion to institute both petitions when Patent Owner did not take a position on claim construction, and remanding for the Board to construe the claims with the option for Patent Owner to submit briefing on claim construction)
• New Director Review Decisions
• • CrowdStrike, Inc. v. GoSecure, Inc., IPR2025-00068 & IPR2025-00070, Paper 25 (June 25, 2025) [see above]
  • Arista Networks, Inc. v. Orckit Corp., IPR2024-01238
  • • Order delegating Director Review to a Delegated Rehearing Panel – Paper 10 (Stewart June 12, 2025) [ordering review by a Delegated Rehearing Panel to review decision denying institution to determine whether the Board erred in (1) its construction of a claim limitation, (2) whether the cited prior art teaches that limitation, and (3) if not, whether discretionary denial is warranted under 37 U.S.C. § 325(d)]
  • Mastercard Inc. v. OV Loop, Inc., IPR2023-01289
  • • Decision vacating Final Written Decision, and remanding for further proceedings – Paper 41 (Stewart June 10, 2025) [remanding to the Board to consider Patent Owner's arguments and "point more specifically to where in [the prior art] the argued limitation is taught, if anywhere, and which components [of the prior art] satisfy the limitation, if any"]
  • Klein Tools, Inc. v. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp., IPR2024-01400 & IPR2024-01401
  • • Decision vacating decision granting institution, and denying institution – Paper 22 (Stewart June 9, 2025) [finding the Board's weighing of Fintiv factors (1) and (4) erroneous for failing to "give enough weight to the lack of a stay, or the fact that a stay was unlikely, in the parallel International Trade Commission ('ITC') investigation" and "sufficiently consider the extent of overlap between the two proceedings" and finding for factor (6) that "the merits of the Petitions do not outweigh the other factors"]
  • TikTok Inc. v. Cellspin Soft, Inc., IPR2024-00757, IPR2024-00759, IPR2024-00760, IPR2024-00767, IPR2024-00768, IPR2024-00769 & IPR2024-00770
  • • Order granting Director Review – Paper 34 (Stewart June 5, 2025) [granting Director Review to consider patent owner's request to vacate the Board's institution decision on patent owner's allegations that "(1) Petitioner ... failed to name the Chinese Communist Party ('CCP') as a real party-in-interest ('RPI') as required under 35 U.S.C. § 312(a); and (2) Petitioner is an entity controlled by a sovereign and, therefore, is not a 'person' eligible to file IPRs under the Supreme Court's ruling in Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service, 587 U.S. 618 (2019)"]
  • Spectrum Solutions LLC v. Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics, LLC, IPR2021-00847, IPR2021-00850, IPR2021-00854, IPR2021-00857 & IPR2021-00860
  • • Decision modifying entered sanctions on unopposed remand and reconsideration – Paper 147 (Stewart June 5, 2025) [maintaining findings on sanctionable conduct, vacating sanction canceling all claims, finding a fees award to be generally appropriate but not applicable in light of settlement agreement between the parties, and noting "Patent Owner is strongly admonished for its conduct and cautioned that any future misconduct before the Office will be met with additional sanctions"]
  • Verizon Connect Inc. v. Omega Patents, LLC, IPR2023-01162
  • • Decision vacating Final Written Decision, and terminating the proceeding – Paper 40 (Stewart June 3, 2025) [finding "Petitioner fails to show cause why this proceeding [involving claims challenged seven times previously and for which an appeal is currently pending] should not be terminated"]
  • Vizio, Inc. v. Polaris PowerLED Technologies, LLC, IPR2024-00073
  • • Order delegating Director Review to a Delegated Rehearing Panel – Paper 36 (Stewart May 12, 2025) [ordering review by a Delegated Rehearing Panel "to determine whether the panel misapprehended or overlooked any issue, including whether the panel: (1) should have explicitly construed [a] claim term ... and (2) erred in determining that Petitioner had shown certain dependent claims unpatentable while simultaneously finding that Petitioner had not met its burden in showing the independent claims from which they depend to be unpatentable"]
    • Delegated Rehearing Panel Decision denying rehearing – Paper 38 (DRP June 11, 2025) [finding "the original Board panel did not misapprehend or overlook any issue in determining that the challenged claims were unpatentable"]

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