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USPTO further enhances examination quality feedback "LOOP" with collaborative learning series launch
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), America’s Innovation Agency, continues to strengthen its commitment to ensuring the value and durability of patent rights are optimized throughout its operations with the launch of a new monthly training series titled “Learning from Outcomes to Optimize Patents (LOOP).”
This training series is the result of the ongoing synergistic collaboration between the Patents business unit and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Through this initiative, PTAB and Patents have identified use-case examples of both high-quality examination practices and potential examination errors identified in later PTAB proceedings. Starting in February 2026, the monthly LOOP training series will highlight these examples with supervisory patent examiners and administrative patent judges and emphasize exemplar examination practices, while identifying opportunities for improvement in patent examination. In this manner, the Agency provides another robust feedback loop from PTAB to patent examination practice, bolstering its many avenues and available tools to ensure patents are "born strong."
This new training series is an outgrowth of the Office’s “Favorable Factor” initiative announced last November in an effort to close the gap between private-sector and agency search strategies: USPTO announces voluntary Search Disclosure Declaration as a favorable institution factor for AIA proceedings. Both LOOP and the Favorable Factor approaches are being used to enhance examiner training, refine classification pathways, and inform the development of AI-enhanced search tools. These combined efforts complement USPTO’s broader efforts to improve patent quality, such as the recently launched data-driven quality initiative to address areas of highest deviation, and the Artificial Intelligence Search Automated Pilot Program (ASAP!), focused on pre-examination search report generation to further improve examination quality and efficiency before a first office action. Initiatives such as LOOP, Favorable Factor, and ASAP!, as well as others, demonstrate the USPTO’s longstanding commitment to its quality framework and delivering high-quality examination and training for the continuing education of our workforce.
For more information about USPTO patent initiatives, please visit the USPTO website.
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