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Proposed, Not Adopted

USPTO notice of proposed rulemaking, October 2025. Not operative as of 15 August 2026. A final rule was received by OIRA on 22 July 2026 and is pending review; its text is not public.

What it says

In October 2025 the USPTO published a notice of proposed rulemaking to modify the rules of practice for inter partes review before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and as of August 15, 2026 it remained a proposal rather than a final rule.

This page exists to record something that has not happened.

In October 2025 the USPTO proposed modifying the rules of practice for inter partes review. As of August 15, 2026 the proposal had not been adopted.

It is here because a proposal circulating as though it were a rule is a live way for a practitioner to be misinformed about their obligations, and because a reader who encounters a summary of it elsewhere should be able to check its status.

Status as of August 15, 2026. A final rule titled "Revision to Rules of Practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board" was received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on July 22, 2026 and sits at pending review. A final rule under OIRA review is still not a rule. Its text is not public, and nothing in the proposal is operative because a final version is being reviewed. That gap is where a reader is most likely to be misinformed.

What This Does Not Decide

A proposal requires nothing. The risk on this page is not advice, it is miscitation, and the two failure modes are cousins. Presenting a proposal as a rule misinforms a reader about their obligations exactly as advising them would.
  • It does not change what PTAB practice requires today.
  • It does not predict whether the proposal will be adopted, or in what form.
  • Check its current status before relying on anything here. This page states the position as of August 15, 2026, and the OIRA stage is precisely the point at which that position can change without warning.

Educational, not legal advice. This page reports what an authority says. Applying it to a matter is work for a registered practitioner with the file in front of them.

Sources