by Dennis Crouch
On October 31, 2025, USPTO Director John Squires issued a one-page Notice of Decisions on Institution denying institution in thirteen pending inter partes review proceedings without a single word of explanation. The notice, signed solely by Squires, lists only the IPR docket numbers and concludes: "Petitions are denied, and no trial is instituted," citing 35 U.S.C. § 314(a). No panel composition, no reasoning, no indication of PTAB participation appears on the face of the order, which denied institution petitions filed by Apple, Snap, Amazon, AT&T, and others.
This marks the first wave of Director-level institution decisions since Squires’s October 17 memorandum reclaiming full control of AIA-trial institution from the Board and promising “summary notices” for routine outcomes. He has now made good on that promise. For the first time since the AIA’s enactment, an entire slate of IPR petitions was denied with no public reasoning. This departs from traditional PTAB practice and even from Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart’s centralized, expanded discretionary-denial process, which still produced reasoned written analyses.
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