Data / Federal rules / 2024-03523
Expanding Opportunities To Appear Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
The Patent and Trademark Office published this proposed rule in the Federal Register on February 21, 2024. Comments closed on May 21, 2024.
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What the agency says
As part of its initiatives to expand access to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office), the USPTO proposes to amend the rules regarding admission to practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) in proceedings under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA proceedings) to give parties the option to designate non-registered practitioners who are recognized pro hac vice (i.e., granted recognition in a specific PTAB proceeding) as lead counsel; excuse parties from the requirement to designate back-up counsel upon a showing of good cause such as a lack of resources to hire two counsel; establish a streamlined alternative procedure for recognizing counsel pro hac vice that is available when counsel has previously been recognized pro hac vice in a different PTAB proceeding; and clarify that those recognized pro hac vice have a duty to inform the Board of subsequent events that render inaccurate or incomplete representations they made to obtain pro hac vice recognition.
Key facts
- Document number
- 2024-03523
- Type
- Proposed rule
- Action
- Notice of proposed rulemaking
- Agency
- Commerce Department; Patent and Trademark Office
- Published
- February 21, 2024
- Comments due
- May 21, 2024
- Dates
- Written comments must be received on or before May 21, 2024.
- Docket
- Docket No. PTO-P-2023-0058
- Regulation ID (RIN)
- 0651-AD75
- Code of Federal Regulations
- 37 CFR 42
- Topics
- Administrative practice and procedure; Inventions and patents; Lawyers
- Pages
- 5
Other documents from the Patent and Trademark Office
Everything from the Patent and Trademark Office · Rules on administrative practice and procedure · Rules on inventions and patents · Rules on lawyers · Published in February 2024
Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.