Discretionary Decision Statistics Update
By Adam J. Cook, Daniel C. Sloan, and Matt Johnson - The October 17 Memo from Director Squires marked the end of a distinct discretionary denial era, the Interim Era. Per the memo, as of October 20, all institution decisions (discretionary, non-discretionary, and...
PTAB Issues First Summary Institution (Denial) Decisions
By Matt Johnson - On October 31st, the Director issued his first set of summary decisions on IPR institutions, denying institution of 13 cases without comment in a single document.
PTAB Presentation Regarding Director Institution – Slides and Rough Transcript
By Adam Cook, Christian Roberts, and Matt Johnson - On October 29th, Acting Chief Judge Deshpande and Vice Chief Judge Kim discussed Director institution of AIA trials, where the Director will make all institution decisions (on both discretionary, non-discretionary,...
Divergent Claim Construction Results in Discretionary Denial
By Evan Tassis and Matt Johnson - In a recent decision, Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart granted Patent Owner’s request for discretionary denial in Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Inc. v. Nivagen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., IPR2025-00893. While some factors weighed...
Settled Expectations Insufficient To Prevent IPR Review
By Mike Lavine - On September 4, 2025, the USPTO’s Acting Director declined H2 Intellect LLC’s request for discretionary denial of an IPR petition filed by Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. Central to the decision was the PTAB’s analysis of “settled expectations”—the idea that...