Data / Federal rules / 2024-23319
Expanding Opportunities To Appear Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
The Patent and Trademark Office published this final rule in the Federal Register on October 10, 2024. It took effect on November 12, 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 modifies the rules regarding representation by counsel at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) in proceedings under the Leahy- Smith America Invents Act (AIA proceedings) to: permit parties to proceed without 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
- 2024-23319
- Type
- Final rule
- Action
- Final rule
- Agency
- Commerce Department; Patent and Trademark Office
- Published
- October 10, 2024
- Takes effect
- November 12, 2024
- Dates
- This rule is effective November 12, 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
- 8
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 October 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.