Under US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Squires and Deputy Director Coke Morgan Stewart, the USPTO has enacted pro-patent owner policy changes that have reduced post grant validity challenges and increased ex parte appeals output by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), while coinciding with increased examiner attrition.
“The math is straightforward: The PTAB is currently deciding roughly 300 more ex parte appeals than it’s receiving each month,” Bracewell’s Kit Crumbley told Law360. “With current inventory around 2,250 cases, they’ll exhaust it in approximately seven months unless they dramatically reduce output.”
