Patent Office Ordered to Give More Details on ‘Illegal’ Program

A Justice Department letter accusing the US Patent and Trademark Office of restarting an “illegal” application review program is enough to reopen discovery in inventors’ privacy lawsuit against the agency, a federal magistrate judge ruled.

The letter’s “sensationalized characterizations” of the agency’s initiative to flag potentially frivolous patent applications for further inspection may be inaccurate, Matthew J. Sharbaugh of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said, but “the Court is hard-pressed to reject Plaintiffs’ relevance arguments out of hand.”

Inventors Paul Morinville and Gilbert Hyatt allege the PTO’s past use of a Sensitive Application Warning System violated ...