The director of the US Patent and Trademark Office will look at discretionary factors before an administrative tribunal can take up any validity challenges to issued patents, the agency announced Wednesday.
In a memo to judges on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Coke Morgan Stewart, the acting PTO director, described a new interim process that splits decisions on whether to take up validity challenges—known as inter partes reviews—and other proceedings under the America Invents Act into two parts: discretionary considerations and the merits.
The announcement comes a day after the PTAB issued guidance to its judges on the factors ...