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Director Vidal sets schedule and calls for amicus briefing in Director review cases

Today Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), issued orders setting the schedule for Director review of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) decisions in OpenSky Industries, LLC v. VLSI Technology LLC, IPR2021-01064, Paper 47 (PTAB July 7, 2022) and Patent Quality Assurance, LLC v. VLSI Technology LLC, IPR2021-01229, Paper 35 (PTAB July 7, 2022). Director Vidal identified the following issues for review in each case:

• What actions the Director, and by delegation the Board, should take when faced with evidence of an abuse of process or conduct that otherwise thwarts, as opposed to advances, the goals of the Office and/or the America Invents Act (AIA); and
• How the Director, and by delegation the Board, should assess conduct to determine if it constitutes an abuse of process, or if it thwarts, as opposed to advances, the goals of the Office and/or the AIA, and what conduct should be considered as such.

Amicus curiae are authorized to submit a brief to Director_PTABDecision_Review@uspto.gov, limited to the issues identified above. The brief will be entered into the record in both cases, must be no more than 25 pages, and must be submitted by August 4, 2022. These orders can be found on the webpage providing the status of Director review requests.

Learn more about the interim Director review process and the status of Director review requests.

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