On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump took his oath of office, formally initiating his second term as the president of the United States. In the wake of this monumental shift in leadership and political power, many Americans wonder how the second Trump administration will impact intellectual property (IP) policy both domestically and abroad. Over the course of Trump’s past two political campaigns, the president did not make IP a central focus of either platform. Nevertheless, if Trump’s prior presidential term serves as any indication of what is to come, we can expect to see several significant shifts in the IP landscape, most notably pro-patent legislative reform, a continued push for artificial intelligence (AI) development accompanied by a broadening of patent protection for AI inventions, and a declining efficiency and productivity of patent application processing and review.

Expanding the Creation and Enforcement of Patent Rights

It comes as no surprise that Trump is “pro-patent,” defending the rights and property interests of patent owners and innovators in the United States. During his prior term in office, Trump appointed Andrei Iancu as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) who quickly gained notoriety as a staunch advocate for inventors. As a direct consequence of Iancu’s leadership, the first Trump administration implemented several patent reforms such as, for example, replacing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) “broadest reasonable interpretation” claim construction standard in order to harmonize the respective standards applied by the PTAB and the federal district courts. “Changes to the claim construction standard for interpreting claims in trial proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board,” 83 Fed. Reg. 51340 (Oct. 11, 2018). Additionally, Iancu showed support for the Fintiv rule that authorized the PTAB to exercise discretion in denying inter partes review (IPR) petitions based on several factors such as, for example, whether the challenged patent is already involved in concurrent district court litigation. See Apple v. Fintiv, IPR No. 2020-00019 (PTAB March 20, 2020). Thus, Iancu’s tenure as director of the USPTO may be characterized as one promoting patent quantity over quality by eliminating the various avenues of patent invalidation.