During its most recent Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) meeting, the USPTO shared an update on the Post Grant Outcomes (PGO) Pilot program, which commenced in April of this year. As we previously reported, the PGO program was initiated to identify those patents being challenged at the PTAB that have pending related applications and provide the examiners of those pending related applications access to the prior art submitted with the post grant proceeding petition. The three stated objectives of the PGO are (1) enhanced patentability determinations in related child cases, (2) targeted examiner training, and (3) examining corps education. The USPTO has generally assessed that the PGO program has met its goal of shining a spotlight on highly relevant prior art uncovered in post grant proceedings and, thus, has enhanced the determination of patentability in related child cases.
