Revision to Rules of Practice Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office 37 CFR Part 42 [Docket No. PTO-P-2025-0025] RIN 0651-AD89 AGENCY: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. SUMMARY: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) proposes modifications to the rules of practice for inter partes review (IPR) before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) that the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of USPTO and, by delegation, the PTAB will use in instituting IPR. DATES: Comments must be received by November 17, 2025 to ensure consideration. The Office does not anticipate granting an extension to the comment period, absent extraordinary circumstances. ADDRESSES: For reasons of Government efficiency, comments must be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at: https://www.regulations.gov . To submit comments via the portal, one should enter docket number PTO-P-2025-0025 on the homepage and select the “Search” button. The site will provide search results listing all documents associated with this docket. Commenters can find a reference to this notice and select the “Comment” button, complete the required fields, and enter or attach their comments. Attachments to electronic comments will be accepted in Adobe® portable document format (PDF) or Microsoft Word® format. Because comments will be made available for public inspection, informa…