Patent and Trademark Office April 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) published a final rule in the Federal Register on April 1, 2016, revising the rules related to trial practice for inter partes review, post-grant review, the transitional program for covered business method patents, and derivation proceedings that implemented provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (``AIA'') providing for trials before the Office. This document corrects an error in that final rule.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (``USPTO'' or ``Office'') proposes to amend the Trademark Rules of Practice (``Trademark Rules'' or ``Rules''), in particular the rules pertinent to practice before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (``Board''), to benefit the public by providing for more efficiency and clarity in inter partes and ex parte proceedings. Certain amendments are being proposed to reduce the burden on the parties, to conform the rules to current practice, to update references that have changed, to reflect technologic changes, and to ensure the usage of standard, current terminology. The proposed rules will also further strategic objectives of the Office to increase the end-to-end electronic processing.