Iancu Weighs PTAB Authority in Patent Claim Amendments

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu appeared skeptical during a Tuesday hearing that an administrative tribunal shouldn’t be able to raise its own grounds for rejecting substitute patent claims.

The agency’s Precedential Opinion Panel quizzed attorneys in a dispute, Hunting Titan, Inc. v. DynaEnergetics GmbH & Co. KG, Inc., about whether the Patent Trial and Appeal Board should be able to propose unpatentability grounds that a challenger didn’t advance or sufficiently develop against proposed substitute claims.

Iancu questioned whether PTAB panels should “close their eyes” if they think proposed substitute claims are unpatentable because a petitioner didn’t ...