Summary from the Federal Register
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) proposes to update its rules governing amendment practice in trial proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) to make permanent certain provisions of the Office's motion to amend pilot program (MTA pilot program) and to revise the rules that allocate burdens of persuasion in connection with motions to amend (MTAs). The Office proposes to revise its rules of practice to provide for issuance of preliminary guidance in response to an MTA and to provide a patent owner with the option for filing one additional revised MTA. Further, the Office proposes to revise the rules to clarify that a preponderance of evidence standard applies to any new ground of unpatentability raised by the Board and to clarify that when exercising the discretion to grant or deny an MTA or to raise a new ground of unpatentability, the Board may consider all evidence of record in the proceeding, including evidence identified through a prior art search conducted by the Office at the Board's request and added to the record. These rules better ensure the Office's role of issuing robust and reliable patents, and the predictability and certainty of post-grant trial proceedings before the Board. These changes would apply to the existing consolidated set of rules relating to the Office trial practice for inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), and derivation proceedings that implemented provisions of the AIA providing for trials before the Office.
Dates
To ensure consideration, commenters must submit written comments on or before May 3, 2024.