Nearly 1,000 U.S. Patent Applications Terminated – A Cross-Border Compliance Crisis and the Lessons to Be Learned

The USPTO has terminated the proceedings of nearly 1,000 patent applications after discovering serious irregularities in filings handled through a cross-border “intermediary” model. The matter was triggered when a U.S. agency was found to have submitted documents using unauthorized electronic signatures of registered practitioners and/or applicants, prompting the USPTO to issue Show-Cause Orders across the portfolio. The core of this legal scandal lay in fundamental breaches of integrity: the U.S. attorney acted merely as a “signatory of convenience”, had no direct engagement with the ultimate client, and failed to verify the authenticity of the submitted filings. As a consequence, nearly 1,000 patent...