USPTO Adopts Phillips Claim Construction Standard – On October 11, 2018, the Federal Register published the USPTO’s final rule titled, “Changes to the Claim Construction Standard for Interpreting Claims in Trial Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.”  Notably, the USPTO is replacing the broadest reasonable interpretation standard (“BRI”) standard of claim construction such that claims shall now be construed using the same claim construction standard used in a civil action in federal district court.  The effective date of the new rule is November 13, 2018 and applies to all IPR, PGR and CBM petitions filed on or after the effective date.  Federal district courts employ the Phillips standard for claim interpretation.