Patent Chief Ends PTAB Case With Language That Could Stop Appeal

Newly installed US Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires, in his first exercise of his director review authority, flipped a tribunal decision that had nixed as obvious a Blackhawk Network Inc. patent covering a method for selling lotto tickets.

Squires reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Thursday, saying the party challenging the patent, Interactive Communications International Inc., had only won because the board was “improperly crediting expert testimony that has multiple material contradictions.” Even as he deemed the case “terminated,” though, he wrote that his ruling “does not constitute a final written decision” under a section of ...