US Supreme Court will not hear Google’s challenge to patent policy — Channel NewsAsia
The US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to the US Patent and Trademark Office’s policy on reviewing patent validity. The company argued that the practice shields older patents from review and contributes to an increase in patent disputes, Channel NewsAsia reports.
Dispute over VirtaMove patent
The justices rejected Google’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that did not require the patent office to reconsider the company’s petition challenging the validity of software developer VirtaMove’s patent without applying the “settled expectations” rule. VirtaMove accused Google of infringing a patent related to server software.
Google challenged the “settled expectations” rule. Under this practice, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, or PTAB, more often rejects petitions to review patents that have been in force for more than six years. The patent office applied this rule when it denied Google’s request to review the VirtaMove patent in 2025.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Google’s position and PTAB statistics
Technology companies use the inter partes review procedure to seek cancellation of patents they are accused of infringing. According to Patexia, Samsung, Apple and Alphabet were the most active filers of such reviews in 2020–2025.
In its filing with the Supreme Court, Google said that the Patent and Trademark Office lacks the authority to impose an artificial time limit on petitions to the PTAB when Congress has not set such a restriction. The administration of President Donald Trump urged the court not to take up the case.
Fewer patent reviews
According to the office’s April report, in 2026 the PTAB accepted 37% of petitions for review, compared with 65% under the office’s previous head, Kathi Vidal. The office’s current head is Trump appointee John Squires. Google, Apple and Intel filed a separate lawsuit against a related policy. In February, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled against the companies, and Google and Intel also appealed to the Supreme Court in that case.
