PTO Calls to End Precedent Suit, While Big Tech Goes for Win

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu and a group of major technology companies suing him have asked a federal judge to cut proceedings short before a trial, albeit for different reasons.

Apple Inc., Google LLC and others requested a California federal court declare a PTO rule for deciding whether to grant or deny an agency tribunal trial unlawful and stop the patent office from using it “or the non-statutory factors it incorporates.”

“The Director had no power to adopt this rule,” the companies said in a motion for summary judgment on Monday, referring to what’s known ...