United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) serves as the federal agency responsible for granting patents and registering trademarks, playing a critical role in the protection of intellectual property and fostering innovation. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the USPTO is not a federal district court and therefore does not fall under a specific judicial circuit in the same manner. Instead, appeals from its adjudicative body, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), are heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The USPTO's "docket" is characterized by the immense volume of patent applications it examines and the post-grant administrative proceedings handled by the PTAB, such as inter partes reviews (IPRs), post-grant reviews (PGRs), and reexaminations, which offer mechanisms to challenge patent validity. In Fiscal Year 2025, 1,433 petitions for IPR and PGR were filed.

The PTAB has a reputation for offering a relatively faster alternative to federal court litigation for challenging patent validity. While not a "rocket docket" in the district court sense, IPRs and PGRs operate under statutory deadlines, aiming for institution decisions within three months and final written decisions within 12 months, although reexamination requests do not have such statutory deadlines. Historically, IPRs have shown a higher rate of invalidating challenged claims compared to district court litigation. The institution rate for post-grant petitions in FY 2025 was 50%, with 22% of challenged claims and 47% of instituted claims found unpatentable. This rate saw a notable decrease in the first two months of FY 2026, dropping to 37% for post-grant petitions.

The PTAB operates under its own extensive rules of practice, outlined in 37 CFR parts 41 and 42, and a comprehensive Trial Practice Guide. A significant change in PTAB practice occurred on November 13, 2018, when the Board transitioned from the "broadest reasonable interpretation" (BRI) standard to the "Phillips" claim construction standard, aligning its approach with that used in federal district courts and the International Trade Commission (ITC) for unexpired patents. This change aimed to foster greater consistency and predictability in patent disputes. Furthermore, in July 2025, the USPTO standardized its practice for issuing Notices of Filing Date Accorded for PTAB petitions, aiming to do so within 14 days, which provides more predictability for statutory deadlines. Recent proposed rules in October 2025 also aim to curb serial and parallel patent validity challenges and focus IPRs on patents not previously tested in court.

Among the tracked cases, Unified Patents v. Longhorn Automotive Group LLC involved a Granted Reexamination Request concerning a patent related to a distributed measurement system. Apple Inc. et al. v. SoftView LLC saw claims amended and initially deemed patentable after being stayed and reopened. This case led to a notable Federal Circuit ruling in July 2024, clarifying the scope of patent owner estoppel under 37 C.F.R. § 42.73(d)(3)(i), holding it applies to new or amended claims but not to previously issued claims.

The adjudicative functions of the USPTO are carried out by Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) who sit on the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. These judges are legally and technically trained and often have extensive prior patent experience. As of August 2025, Judge Kalyan Deshpande serves as the Chief Judge for the PTAB, having a long history with the agency in various judicial and leadership roles. Other prominent former APJs include Scott Boalick, who served as Chief Judge before being reassigned in August 2025, and former Vice Chief Judges Tim Fink and Scott Weidenfeller.