PTAB/USPTO Update - January 2025

USPTO Leadership

After stepping down as Director of the USPTO in mid-December, Kathi Vidal rejoined the litigation department at Winston & Strawn LLP. Derrick Brent, formerly Deputy Director, is currently Acting Director of the USPTO. It is unclear when the new Administration will nominate a new Director and how long a confirmation process will take. Nine months into his presidency, President Joe Biden nominated Vidal to be the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO on October 26, 2021, and about six months later, on April 5, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by the Senate.

USPTO Committees and Council Leadership

On January 7, the USPTO announced new membership to its Patent and Trademark Public Advisory Committees, composed of private-sector individuals who advise the agency on its patent and trademark operations. New members of the USPTO’s Patent Public Advisory Committee include Maria Anderson, Idris McKelvey, and Jennifer Yokoyama, while the new members of the Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC) are Thad Chaloemtiarana, Michael Moore, and Sanjana Sharma.
On December 6, the USPTO announced the appointment of ten new members to its Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2). CI2 aims to increase the participation and development of women, veterans, and underrepresented groups as inventors and entrepreneurs.

USPTO News

On December 19, the USPTO and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) announced a collaboration via a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote and advance innovation through technology transfer and commercialization opportunities.
On December 12, the USPTO announced the addition of Tuskegee University and the University of the Virgin Islands to the Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRC) network. There are now 100 PTRCs in libraries across the country and U.S. territories.
On December 11, the USPTO and the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) announced the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), marking the first time the agreement was updated in more than 38 years.
On December 3, the USPTO announced the recipients of the 2024 Trademarks for Humanity and the Patents for Humanity awards. Twelve companies were recognized for their efforts to develop and promote green energy technologies.

Final Rules

Interim Rules

Proposed Rules

PTAB Decisions

New Precedential PTAB Decisions
- There are no new precedential PTAB decisions.
New Informative PTAB Decisions
- There are no new informative PTAB decisions.
New Director Review Decisions
- Duration Media LLC v. Rich Media Club LLC, IPR2023-00953
  - Decision vacating Final Written Decision and remanding for further proceedings – Paper 78 (Vidal December 12, 2024) [determining that the Board erred in finding that Petitioner “failed to show that the prior art taught a claim limitation relating to determining whether an advertisement has been displayed to a user for ‘a predefined period of time’ (the ‘viewability test’)” because the Board “conflated enablement and obviousness by focusing on whether [the prior art] discloses ‘how to’ perform the viewability test” and “failed to adequately explain why [the prior art] does not disclose the viewability test”]

Authors