INTA North American Roundtable | Annual Case Law Review (Chicago)

After issuing an April Fool’s Day press release announcing an imagined “AI-assisted evaluator for patent eligibility determinations,” the USPTO issued another press release on April 1, 2026, that stakeholders need to take seriously. The real notice relates to ex parte reexamination proceedings, and announced a new process permitting patent owners to weigh in before the USPTO decides whether to proceed with reexamination.

This article is designed to provide an overview of the current state consumer privacy landscape in the United States, the key distinctions among these state laws, practical compliance approaches, and actionable takeaways for operationalizing privacy programs in a fragmented regulatory environment.