Apple, Google Fight Attempt to Block Patent Validity Trials

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and technology companies are pushing back against an inventor organization’s attempt in court to block new patent validity reviews while awaiting new regulations.

Blocking the PTO from launching reviews until it finishes rules on the leeway to deny validity trials “would eviscerate a central pillar” of patent law “to the detriment of innovators and the entire patent system,” Alphabet Inc.‘s Google and Apple Inc. said in a Monday filing.

The filings are part of the companies’ lawsuit against the patent office over the “NHK-Fintiv rule” in the U.S. District Court for the ...