Federal Circuit Rebuffs Apple’s Bid to Rein in Patent Office (1)

Apple Inc. couldn’t convince the Federal Circuit to block the US Patent and Trademark Office from implementing changes that make it harder to challenge the validity of patents.

Apple, along with several other tech titans, sued PTO leadership over factors for pre-screening validity challenges adopted at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the suit’s dismissal Friday while emphasizing the broad discretion of agency directors to make it easier or harder for patent suit defendants to bring challenges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Congress created the tribunal ...