IA Blog: It is Time for the Trump Administration to Finalize Its PTAB Reform.
By Brian Pomper, Executive Director of the Innovation Alliance
The Innovation Alliance has spent decades advocating for a patent system that protects American inventors and gives innovators the confidence to invest in the next breakthrough. That’s why we are urging the USPTO to finalize its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to improve the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) practices for instituting inter partes review (IPR) challenges.
Announced one year ago tomorrow, these reforms would restore greater fairness, efficiency and predictability to patent adjudication while advancing key principles reflected in the bipartisan, bicameral PREVAIL Act.
At the heart of the proposal is a simple idea: patent challengers should get one bite at the apple—not endless opportunities to attack the same patent.
The PTAB was created to provide a more efficient alternative for resolving patent disputes, not another venue for repeated challenges. Yet today, inventors can be forced to defend the same patent again and again across multiple forums.
The USPTO’s proposal would help change that by limiting repetitive challenges, reducing duplicative proceedings and providing greater certainty when patent rights have already been adjudicated. That is particularly important for startups, small businesses and individual inventors. They should not have to waste their scarce capital repeatedly defending their intellectual property against Big Tech companies with vastly greater resources.
Strong and reliable patent rights are the foundation of America’s innovation economy. They bolster U.S. global leadership in critical and emerging technologies, drive economic growth, and safeguard our national security. But when patents can be relitigated endlessly before multiple tribunals, investment dries up, technology transfer stalls, and foreign firms gain an edge.
With this rulemaking, the Trump Administration has an opportunity to build on its commitment to American innovation by strengthening the patent rights that incentivize investment in world-leading R&D here at home.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and USPTO Director John Squires demonstrated exemplary leadership by proposing these rule changes. Their commitment to strengthening the U.S. patent system and reforming the PTAB has the potential to be a shining achievement for the Trump Administration.
Now, nearly a year after it was proposed, it is time for the Administration and USPTO to finish the job and finalize this NPRM.