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The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today published an Executive Summary encapsulating stakeholder feedback received from the October 20, 2020 Request for Comments on institution of America Invents Act (AIA) proceedings. The USPTO received 822 comments from a wide range of stakeholders, including individuals, associations, law firms, companies, and three United States senators.
Most commentators recognized that the Office must exercise discretion to help ensure that patent owners are not subject to repeated challenges against issued patents. A number of commenters favored the codification of the Office's current approach to the exercise of discretion. Others favored codification with some modifications. Finally, certain commenters argued that the Office should grant all petitions that meet the institution threshold, while others argued that the Office should not consider repeat challenges at all.
The breadth of commentary and recommendations provided by stakeholders is much appreciated and will help the Office in its efforts to evaluate and refine discretionary institution practices.
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