IAM – November 2025
New USPTO Director John Squires has taken several important steps to improve the inter partes review process since taking on the role in September. This is good news for the US patent system and for innovation.
In the space of 24 hours in mid-October, for example, he not only gave notice that he would be playing a more central role in decisions on whether to institute an IPR, but the USPTO also issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking modifying the PTAB trial practice on the institution of IPRs.
The stated objective of the proposed rule is to “enhance fairness and efficiency in patent disputes by focusing IPR proceedings on cases where the patent has not previously been challenged in litigation or where prior litigation was resolved via settlement at an early stage”.
In other words, the USPTO’s goal is to stop the practice of using IPRs to launch duplicative attacks against an issued patent.
The proposal addresses a key factor undercutting patent holders’ rights in the United States: the difficulty of certainty of value of a patent even after its issuance because of the risk of repeated challenges by infringers through IPRs and parallel judicial proceedings.