WASHINGTON — Dave Jones, executive director of the High Tech Inventors Alliance (HTIA), today issued the following statement regarding a group of four tech companies challenging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) unlawful discretionary denial decisions under the Administrative Procedure Act and Cisco filing a mandamus petition relating to a discretionary denial:
“We applaud the effort to challenge the USPTO’s so-called ‘absolute discretion’ to deny the institution of an inter partes review. The current leadership at the USPTO has taken it upon itself to impose extra-statutory requirements on petitioners, which are inconsistent with the requirements Congress intended under the America Invents Act and needlessly increase the cost, complexity, and uncertainty of inter partes review proceedings. The USPTO has essentially moved to rewrite the rules Congress laid out, resulting in skyrocketing discretionary denials. We support these efforts to ensure that the USPTO returns to the goal of its congressional mandate."
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