Patent review rules
Intel v. John A. Squires
In brief
- Where it stands
- Petition Pending
Awaiting an order on the petition
- What it’s about
- Intel and other companies say a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rule unlawfully restricts access to inter partes review, an agency process for challenging patents, and ask that the rule be set aside.
- What's at stake
- The dispute concerns whether Intel and the other companies can challenge Patent Office rules that govern access to a federal process for challenging patents.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
They argue that a law shielding individual decisions to start reviews from court challenges does not also bar courts from reviewing the rule itself.
Intel and the other companies ask a court to address the rule itself, rather than review a specific decision about whether to start a patent review.
The Patent Office has an agency process that lets challengers ask it to review a patent's validity.
Question presented
Whether 35 U.S.C. § 314(d), which bars judicial review of “[t]he determination … whether to institute an inter partes review,” applies even when no institution decision is challenged to preclude review of PTO rules that set standards governing institution decisions, particularly when those rules are based on a misinterpretation of § 314(a) to supposedly confer unlimited discretion on the Director to deny institution for any reason?
What happens next
The Court must decide whether to hear the case. Its docket lists the petition for a Dec. 4, 2026 conference, but that does not guarantee review or a decision date.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
Brief added: Petition
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.