The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced that starting September 1, 2025, all Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) hearings will be held in-person. All parties will be expected to appear in person for hearings absent a showing of good cause. Good cause will generally be limited to circumstances such as financial hardship, medical emergencies, or other comparable obstacles to in-person attendance. It’s important to note that the approval of one party to appear virtually does not establish good cause for other parties in the same matter to also appear virtually.

The Bill will amend the Patents Act 2013 (2013 Act) to apply stricter criteria for grant of divisional applications filed under the Patents Act 1953 (1953 Act).

DesignVision: A New Artificial Intelligence-Powered Image Search Tool Summary The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) has added DesignVision, a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based image search tool, to the Patents End-to-End (PE2E) search suite, to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of prior art searches. When an examiner conducts a search using DesignVision, details regarding the query and output will be conununicated to the applicant and to the public via recordation in the application's file wrapper search notes and search history summary report. The USPTO has made this search tool available to design patent examiners for conducting prior art searches during the design patent examination process. The USPTO may make the search tool available to other examiners, such as utility patent examiners, at a later time at its discretion.