Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") implemented a new interim procedure for the USPTO Director to review a Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("PTAB") final decision.
On a dedicated webpage, the USPTO stated that a Director review can be initiated by the Director (i) sua sponte (on his own accord), or (ii) following a request by a party to a PTAB proceeding. The USPTO clarified that parties seeking a Director's review of a final written decision in an inter partes (post-grant) review can request one by concurrently (i) entering a Request for Rehearing by the Director into the PTAB End to End (or "E2E") system and (ii) submitting by email to the USPTO a notification of the Request for Rehearing by the Director.
Additionally, the USPTO offered additional FAQs concerning the impact of the Arthrex decision on PTAB proceedings generally, as well as the interim Director review process.
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