Justices Won’t Review Patent Office Rule on Reopening Examination

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t examine whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can block appeals from rejected applicants in a case brought by a proficient inventor with hundreds of pending patent applications.

The high court Oct. 7 declined to hear inventor Gilbert Hyatt’s petition challenging a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision that Hyatt can’t challenge the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s internal rules because he waited too long to sue.

The decision is a win for the patent office and upholds a provision its Manual of Patent Examining Procedure that’s at the center of the ...