Just announced today — the amended PTAB Rules of trial practice (click for a copy) will be published in the Federal Register on April 1, 2016 and take effect at the end of the month.
Changes include
- new testimonial evidence permitted in preliminary response
- Rule-11 type certification required
- Phillips-style claim construction for expiring patents
- word-count instead of page limit on major briefing
From the summary: "This final rule amends the existing consolidated set of rules relating to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) trial practice for IPR, PGR, CBM, and derivation proceedings that implemented provisions of the AIA providing for trials before the Office, by allowing new testimonial evidence to be submitted with a patent owner's preliminary response, adding a Rule 11-type certification for papers filed in a proceeding, allowing a claim construction approach that emulates the approach used by a district court following Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (hereinafter 'a Phillips-type or district court-type construction approach') for claims of patents that will expire before entry of a final written decision, and replacing the current page limit with a word count limit for major briefing."
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