Squires Confirms PTAB Judges Will Resume Institution Calls

September 29, 2026

Administrative patent judges will soon resume deciding whether Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges will be instituted on the merits, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires told the Senate during a hearing that also raised questions about if the office has sacrificed patent quality to speed through an examination backlog.

Patent Dealmakers Warn USPTO Assignment Data Remains Unreliable After Outage

September 28, 2026

There appears to be significant ongoing problems with data the US Patent and Trademark Office is releasing about patent transactions, and stakeholders say the agency is stonewalling them when they seek answers about the unreliable data feed.

USPTO Is Seeing A Rise In Continued Examination Requests

September 25, 2026

Requests for continued examination of patent applications have ballooned at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a trend attributed in part to the agency's success at decreasing the backlog of new applications. In the 2026 fiscal year so far, the USPTO has a little over 30,500 requests for continued examination in its inventory, an increase from roughly 10,700 applications in its 2025 fiscal year inventory.

Industry Groups, IP Attys Back High Court PTAB Denials Case

September 7, 2026

The bar association for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, a group of intellectual property law attorneys and others have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize the discretionary denial policies of current U.S. Patent and Trademark Office leadership. In amicus briefs, e-learning company Kahoot! AS's challenge to USPTO Director John Squires' institution policies got the backing of groups like Askeladden LLC, the Association for Affordable Medicine, the Software & Information Industry Association and the PTAB Bar Association.

An Inside Look At Squires' Discretionary Denials

September 3, 2026

Under U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires, discretionary denial has become the single most significant obstacle to institution of America Invents Act proceedings. Since he took over institution decisions on Oct. 31, 2025, he has denied nearly 60% of petitions on discretionary grounds, without reaching the merits. Every discretionary denial decision issued by Squires between Oct. 31, 2025, and Aug. 25 this year, and corresponding briefs were analyzed. This article reveals the commonly asserted discretionary denial arguments and evaluates which arguments most strongly correlated with institution outcomes.

USPTO Policies Spur Reps To Float Conditions On Fee Power

September 2, 2026

Several lawmakers expressed concern at a hearing Wednesday about recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office policies, including increased denials of patent reviews, and questioned if Congress should respond by putting conditions on the office's power to set its own fees.