USPTO Leadership

• On June 3, the USPTO announced the appointment of Derris Banks as Regional Director of the USPTO’s Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional Office located in Detroit, Michigan.

• On June 20, the USPTO announced the appointment of Farheena Y. Rasheed as Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property Law and Solicitor.

USPTO News

• On June 6, the USPTO and the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) agreed to a framework for collaboration between the two offices on policies relating to standard essential patents (SEPs). The framework includes provisions to facilitate cooperation on policy matters concerning SEPs and to examine ways to improve transparency in the fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing of technical interoperability standards. The agreement will remain in effect for five years.

• On June 27, the USPTO announced a Request for Comments (RFC) seeking public feedback on the experimental use exception to patent infringement. The request seeks feedback on the current state of jurisprudence and whether legislative action should be considered to enact a statutory experimental use exception. The RFC is published in the Federal Register. The deadline to submit comments is September 26, 2024.

• The comments period for the USPTO’s April Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which sought public input on proposed rules governing PTAB review processes, closed on June 18. Written comments are available here.

Final Rules

• Rules Governing Pre-Issuance Internal Circulation and Review of Decisions Within the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, 89 Fed. Reg. 49808 (June 12, 2024) [amending the rules of practice before the PTAB to add a new rule governing the pre-issuance circulation and review of decisions within the PTAB] 

Interim Rules

• There are no new interim rules. 

Proposed Rules

• There are no new proposed rules. 

PTAB Decisions

• New Precedential PTAB Decisions
  • There are no new precedential PTAB decisions.
• New Informative PTAB Decisions
  • There are no new informative PTAB decisions.
• New Director Review Decisions
  • There are no new Director Review Decisions