"Yesterday, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Squires sent a memo to all administrative patent judges (APJs) at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) informing them that the agency was restoring the practice of requiring petitioners before the PTAB to identify all real parties in interest (RPI) prior to institution. The change is intended to address the exploitation of PTAB proceedings by foreign state-backed actors arising as an unintended consequence of less stringent RPI standards enforced by previous administrations."
"In his memo, Director Squires told PTAB APJs that he was restoring RPI identification requirements that existed prior to the Board's 2020 decision in SharkNinja Operating LLC v. iRobot Corp., in which an RPI analysis wasn't required for institution unless time-bar or estoppel issues were implicated by an RPI claimed by the patent owner. After removing the precedential designation from SharkNinja in late September, Director Squires' memo announced that the RPI identification requirement would be restored."
USPTO restored the practice requiring petitioners to identify all real parties in interest (RPI) prior to institution of PTAB proceedings. The restoration returns to the pre-2020 Corning Optical standard, requiring satisfaction of 35 U.S.C. § 312(a)(2) before the Board can consider instituting a petition. The change reverses the relaxed RPI analysis from SharkNinja that permitted institution absent full RPI identification unless time-bar or estoppel issues arose. The restoration aims to curb covert financing and exploitation of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings by foreign state-backed actors and to reduce abusive filings by IP manipulators. Corning Optical was designated precedential to implement the restored requirement.
Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law
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