USPTO Director Scolds VLSI for Publicly Citing Anonymous Report on PQA-Intel Connection
"Despite Vidal's disagreement with VLSI, she stopped short of imposing sanctions 'because I agree that, for the most part, the allegations contained in the Rehearing Request were already asserted in a publicly available blog article,' she said."U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Kathi Vidal said in an Order filed yesterday in IPR2021-01229 between Patent Quality Assurance (PQA)/Intel and VLSI Technology that VLSI's reference in its Rehearing Request to an "unsolicited, anonymous, and improper ex parte communication" about the relationship between PQA and Intel that Vidal had put under seal has put VLSI on thin ice and in danger of being sanctioned.