Director Iancu Announces a "New Day" at the USPTO

During his keynote address at the AIPLA's Annual Meeting, Director Iancu announced a "new day" at the USPTO. His prepared remarks are available at the USPTO's "new and improved" website, which Director Iancu also discussed in some detail. It is very refreshing to have a Director of the USPTO who believes:

We must celebrate the inventors, the inventions, and the entrepreneurs that make all this possible. Let’s shine a light on the people who put our country at the leading edge of global innovation, and the world-class IP system that made it all possible.

This is the dialogue we should have.

Director Iancu also discussed in length the importance of transparency and consistency and the steps that the USPTO and the PTAB are taking - from adopting the Philips standard for claim construction to issuing new PTAB trial guidelines and the two standard operating procedures ("SOP") the PTAB has recently adopted.

Director Iancu also gave the audience a preview of proposed final rules (that should be available for public comment shortly) that should make amending claims during post-grant proceedings significantly easier. He described this as an on-going effort to making the patent system in the U.S. more consistent and predictable.

Most importantly, Director Inacu announced that the USPTO has finally answered the question that has plagued almost everyone who has dealt with the Patent Office (and many others). The PTAB will have a "Precedential Opinions Panel" or "POP" with the goal of issuing more precedential opinions.

The second SOP creates a Precedential Opinion Panel and governs precedential and informative decisions of the Board. This panel will mostly be convened to decide issues of exceptional importance that will set forth binding agency policy. Members of this panel are by default the USPTO Director, the Commissioner for Patents, and the Chief Judge, although in some circumstances this authority can be delegated to a pre-defined list of individuals for a particular case.

Although Director Iancu referred to the standard operating procedure creating POP as POP SOP, it was a shame he missed out on the historic achievement that the Patent Office under his leadership has achieved of answering the age-old question of "Who's Your Daddy?"