Bonum Certa Men Certa

As Andrei Iancu Takes Office (USPTO) Calls to Preserve PTAB Are Issued by Trade Groups of Technology Firms

Keep the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) "great"

Winter wonderland



Summary: Now that Trump's nominee, Andrei Iancu, begins his job at the USPTO it's time to look at constructive advice going forward; technology firms, almost without a single exception, ask him to maintain the status quo, which is fostering less litigation by nuisance-causing entities

THE USPTO has a new Director. He comes from the patent microcosm and we therefore keep our hopes rather low. Thankfully, however, technology companies already urge him to shield PTAB, knowing perhaps that cynical oil giants pursue PTAB's abolishment. It's not just oil giants, but it's typically entities that are eager to destroy disruptive technology for litigation bucks.

A few days ago Law 360 wrote about MPEP, which can be used/invoked for invalidating the many bogus patents erroneously granted by the patent office. "USPTO Signals Support For New Basis To Invalidate Patents," the headline said. To quote:

Patent litigators are closely studying a new “improper Markush grouping” section that was quietly slipped into the latest revision of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last month, just days prior to the Senate confirmation of Andrei Iancu as the new director. The MPEP functions as an instruction manual for patent examiners, providing the current procedures examiners are required or authorized to follow in the examination of patent applications.


So this actually predates Andrei Iancu by a few days and is therefore unlikely to be his idea/manifestation. This isn't post-grant like Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs) -- a subject explored by Patent Docs and by Watchtroll a few days ago (mostly just the usual PTAB rants, this time from David Thibodeau).

PTAB is, in general, 'creeping in' when examiners wrestle with applicants, when entities like trolls threaten litigation and also when there's ongoing litigation (even calls for embargo through the ITC). PTAB keeps broadening its scope and its workload too is increasing. This, suffice to say, helps raise the bar for patents.

A few days ago, United for Patent Reform said that the CCIA "provides some suggestions for the new @USPTO Director, Andrei Iancu, to put at the top of his to-do list," citing a blog post we wrote about before. The CCIA was far too soft and 'diplomatic'; it did nothing in an attempt to stop this patent microcosm 'coup', instead sucking up to Iancu before his actual appointment (Iancu has history with Trump).

IAM seems happy enough with Iancu. "Andrei Iancu now officially confirmed at the new USPTO director by 94-0 votes in the Senate," it said. "The EPO gets its new president, Antonio Campinos, on 1st July. Both have a lot of work to do!"

One is a banker, the other a lawyer. No scientists allowed in patent offices anymore?

Well, either way, the press release about the appointment was soon promoted by Watchtroll and IP Watch reported commencement of work as follows: "By a vote of 94-0, the United States Senate on 5 February confirmed California intellectual property litigator Andrei Iancu as next director of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The new Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property is currently managing partner of Irell & Manella LLP’s Los Angeles firm. The patent and trademark communities wished Iancu luck but said there are many issues at the agency that need his attention."

"The @USPTO has made excellent progress on fighting #PatentTrolls and creating a system that works for #startups," said a group that has past connections with the EFF (its staff). "RT to encourage its new director Andrei Iancu to keep it that way!"

The EFF has not said a thing yet. It never even mentioned Iancu at all (as far as we can see).

The High Tech Inventors Alliance (HTIA), a front group for large and small technology companies, wrote a sort of open letter to Iancu. John Thorne, a partner at Kellogg Hansen and general counsel of the HTIA, is pushing Iancu to keep PTAB strong. From Thorne's article:

On Monday the Senate confirmed Andre [sic] Iancu as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an office that most Americans barely know exists but that will deeply influence how well our country does at what it has long done better than anyone else — innovate.

An efficient, well-functioning patent system is among America’s most powerful levers for maintaining its global pre-eminence in R&D investment and productivity. But in this age of ever more sophisticated and complex technologies, the Patent Office is sure to make mistakes. Iancu’s challenge will be to maintain and strengthen two essential pillars of patent quality: efficient post-issuance review to weed out bad existing patents and rigorous examination of patent applications to strengthen the quality of new approvals.

A major step in bolstering quality control was the creation in 2011 of the Inter Partes Review process, a part of that year’s America Invents Act. Without the IPR process, patent granting would be biased toward error. The time that an examiner can devote to each application is limited, on average 19 hours per application. Applicants are not required to conduct prior searches, so gathering evidence can fall entirely on the examiner. And the burden of proof falls exclusively on the examiner, who must demonstrate that a patent should not be issued. No wonder that a 2010 study reported one junior examiner saying, “Rather than doing what I feel is ultimately right, I’m essentially fighting for my life.”


We'll cover PTAB in some later articles. As we noted several months ago, Iancu professionally fought on both sides of PTAB (petitioner and 'defendant'). Maybe he'll come to appreciate that preserving if not increasing patent quality is in the best interest of the Office.

Recent Techrights' Posts

A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe, by Richard Stallman
"The surveillance imposed on us today is worse than in the Soviet Union. We need laws to stop this data being collected in the first place"
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 21, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 21, 2025
The Fall of Windows: From Something to Nothing
Of course Microsoft will pretend everything is fine and "just trust the hey hi" (AI)
Sounds Like Fedora is Ready to Become Less of a Slave of Microsoft (GitHub)
This seems like a belated move in a positive direction
XBox is a Dead Microsoft Product in a Dying Industry
It's probable that another wave of XBox layoffs is just over the horizon (maybe even before month's end)
Progress on Techrights Site Search
Fun times
IBM's Bluewashing of Red Hat Means the Layoffs Are Silent, Barely Reported
Don't wait to hear about "Red Hat layoffs"
Gemini Links 21/10/2025: Happy Disconnection, AWS Falling Apart, Closing of Gemlog Blue
Links for the day
Full Audio of Today's Richard Stallman Talk in the Technical University of Munich
Free/Libre software and freedom in the digital society
Microsoft XBox is Just Vapourware (Promises of Hardware That Doesn't Exist), Real Products Perish
just as developers lose interest in developing for XBox Microsoft is increasing the costs imposed upon them
Slopwatch: Fake Articles (Slop) in "Linux" Clothing in Google News (Noise)
all about what Google does
Links 21/10/2025: Even "Inventor of Vibe Coding" Rejects Vibe Coding, USPTO Experiments With Slop in Examination
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Talk Now Available for Viewing (Archived Copy, Not Live-streamed)
This recording is over 2 hours old
Links 21/10/2025: AWS-Induced Chaos and Social Control Media Curbs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/10/2025: Programming, StarGrid, Brand-New Palm OS Strategy Game in 2025, and Chatbot as Addiction Mechanisms
Links for the day
The African Lion and the American Cowards
Safaris exist for people to watch and enjoy animals
Amazon Web Shenanigans Perfectly Timed for Today's Talk by Richard Stallman
Maybe listen to him instead of looking for excuses to ridicule the messenger
Mission:Libre Has Taken Off (Project by Carmen Maris)
there will be a lot more to report on next month (after the event)
Techrights to Publish More EPO Leaks Next Week
We're meanwhile also doing lots of work on search, whose interface now looks better
Links 21/10/2025: 'The Lost Art' of Neon Signs and Twitter (X) to Enable Identity Theft (or Handle Theft) as a Service
Links for the day
Plagiarism With LLM Slop: Hindustan Times (HT Digital Streams Limited) Has Become a Slop Factory/Hub
What a disgrace
Next Week We Launch Search at Techrights
We're planning to launch it some time next week. Maybe Tuesday, maybe Thursday.
Talk by Richard Stallman Will be Live-streamed in Less Than 10 Hours
Happy hacking
"No Kings" in the Software World (GAFAM Should Not Exist, Either)
"No Kings" is a good slogan. Let's start by ridding ourselves of masters, not only those who reside in DC or visit DC
Every Morning
Bugs/edge cases combined with automation can spell disaster
Insane, Deliberately Dishonest, or Just Another Bigot?
very intellectually-dishonest human being
A Lot of Techrights is Built on Perl
Perl also runs the sister site
The Register MS Selling Slop for Microsoft (Vapourware, Ponzi Scheme, False Claims)
What will be left of The Register MS if it keeps repeating falsehoods and looking to profit from Ponzi schemes?
analytics.usa.gov Says Less Than 14% of Web Requests (to Government Sites) Come From Vista 11
Vista 11 was released more than 4 years ago!
People Who Attempt to Take Down Correct Information Need a Doctor a Day
“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” ― George Orwell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 20, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 20, 2025
Vista 11 is Sinking While Microsoft is PIPing (Mass Layoffs But Silent Layoffs)
We're witnessing a shift in platform dominance
Richard Stallman is Having a Good Week Already (Stallman Was Right About 'Clown Computing')
That alone is worth bringing up in his talk
An Update About Soylent News, With Jan Rinok "Back in the Saddle"
Burnout or "near burnout" a possibility when having to curate abuse
When Prominent GNU/Linux Distros Are Run by Spies
What has Microsoft Canonical become?
More Publishers and Companies Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux", Not "Linux"
It's not to see InstallAware saying GNU/Linux this week
Google News is Now Promoting a Parasitic Slopfarm Called "findarticles.com", Where Plagiarism of "Linux" Articles is Rampant
Does Google even care about the slop epidemic? Google itself is a vendor of slop now (and it calls it "Gemini")
Gemini Links 20/10/2025: Pumpkin Carving, "Hey Hi", and Other Buzzwords
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News Promoting Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
What is the value of Google News if so many results in it are fake 'articles?
Rejecting 'Snoop-Phones' and Turning "Old" Phones (or Tablets) Into Freedom-Respecting Appliances
Paul Fernhout (pdfernhout.net) wrote back to Akira Urushibatathis this past weekend
Our Uptime This Year Was Better Than AWS (Also a Lot Cheaper)
We never used "the cloud"
Amazon Web Shenanigans
An ongoing, experimental endeavour
Death of Elias Diem: FSFE mailing list archives hidden
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/10/2025: Louvre Museum Reveals Weakness, About 7 Million Protest US Turning Into Oligarchy/Monarchy
Links for the day
They Should Have Listened to Techrights Over a Month Earlier (Xubuntu Site Compromised)
we reported this issue about 40 days earlier and nobody did anything about it
Richard Stallman to Give Another Talk Today in Bavaria (Bavarian Academy of Science)
Tomorrow at 6 PM he speaks in Munich
Apple is the Company of Dictators and Worse
Apple is just another greedy corporation in search of sweatshops and even pedophiles (especially the high-profile ones)
Counting Unhatched Eggs Is Not Counting Chickens
Everything here will persist as normal
Barry Kauler Explains That Puppy Linux and EasyOS Exclude Systemd to Keep Things Simple
Barry Kauler's Puppy Linux is in the community's hands. He now focuses on EasyOS and more.
The "Infinite Bread"
The biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 has software parallels
Half a Year After Brian Fagioli Got Kicked Out of BetaNews for Slop He's Still Doing LLM Slop and Slop Images Targeting 'Linux' (Plagiarising Original Works)
If the Web gets polluted or flooded by slopfarms such as these, and Slashdot then sends traffic so these slopfarms (Slashdot probably doesn't do this intentionally), then real writers with real knowledge of GNU/Linux will lose the spark for publishing
In Many Cases and in Many Different Ways, Technology Became Less Durable and Less Reliable Over Time
The "modern" things are more complex. And complexity is a foe or reliability and repair-ability.
Microsoft's LinkedIn is Losing Money, Traffic, and Hope; Now It Wants to Sell Its Users' Lifeblood (and Data)
Let this be a reminder of what social control media really is about
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 19, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 19, 2025
Campaign of FUD Against Framework Laptops and GNU/Linux (Using Microsoft's Attack on Linux, 'Secure Boot')
Ritual Defamation Cult has turned its attention over to Framework
Microsoft Lunduke: Freedom of Speech Means Spreading What I Have to Say and Banning People I Disagree With
4Chan is one he aims for and he is siccing 4Chan trolls at people he doesn't like
Liberation From 'The Feed'
They rank things based on the editor's choice/ideology (he or she knows the sponsors, hence the masters)
Microsoft's Killing of Vista 10 Seems to Have Resulted in More Articles About GNU/Linux (But Also FUD)
We not only saw a rise in traffic, we also saw a remarkable rise in the number of articles