In Re INTEL CORPORATION, LENOVO UNITED STATES INC v. U.S. Dist. Ct. for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 380-81 2004 . Given Congress committed…

NOTE: This order is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
In Re INTEL CORPORATION, LENOVO (UNITED
STATES) INC.,
Petitioners
______________________
2026-113
______________________
On Petition for Writ of Mandamus to the United States
Patent and Trademark Office in No. IPR2025-00838.
______________________
ON PETITION
______________________
Before TARANTO, MAYER, and STARK, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM.
O R D E R
Intel Corporation and Lenovo (United States) Inc. (col-
lectively, “Intel”) petition for a writ of mandamus challeng-
ing the denial of their request for institution of inter partes
review (“IPR”) of USTA Technology, LLC’s patent. USTA
and the Director of the United States Patent and Trade-
mark Office (“PTO” or “Office”) oppose the petition. For the
following reasons, we deny mandamus relief.
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IN RE INTEL CORPORATION 2
I.
USTA owns U.S. Patent No. RE47,720, which relates
to increasing spectrum in a wireless network.
Several months before Intel sought IPR, the PTO or-
dered ex parte reexamination (“EPR”) of the ’720 patent. In
a non-final office action in March 2025, the examiner re-
jected the challenged claims. The following month, Intel
filed the present IPR petition, arguing, inter alia, that the
challenged claims would have been obvious over a prior art
reference (Walton) in combination with other references.
In June 2025, USTA filed in the EPR its response to the
office action and a disclosure statement containing Intel’s
petition and Walton. In July 2025, the PTO issued a reex-
amination certificate and ended the EPR.
In October 2025, the PTO discretionarily denied insti-
tution of Intel’s IPR petition. It agreed with Intel that the
examiner did not appear to consider Walton during the
EPR and that Walton is material to at least one of the chal-
lenged patent claims. However, the PTO determined that,
under the circumstances, “the most efficient process for the
Office” is “not to refer the [p]etition” to the Patent Trial and
Appeal Board, but for Intel “to file a reexamination request
that includes Walton.” Appx2. Intel now seeks mandamus
relief to compel the PTO to vacate its non-institution deci-
sion and reconsider institution.
II.
The standard for mandamus relief is demanding. Intel
must show, among other things, that it has a clear and in-
disputable right to the relief it seeks. Cheney v. U.S. Dist.
Ct. for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 380–81 (2004). Given Congress
committed institution decisions to the Director’s discretion,
even when the statutory pre-conditions are present, SAS
Inst., Inc. v. Iancu, 584 U.S. 357, 366 (2018); Apple Inc. v.
Squires, ___ F.4th ___, 2026 WL 406495, at *1 (Fed. Cir.
Feb. 13, 2026), and protected the exercise of that discretion
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IN RE INTEL CORPORATION 3
from review by making such determinations “final and
nonappealable,” 35 U.S.C. § 314(d), we have recognized
that mandamus is ordinarily unavailable for review of in-
stitution decisions. Mylan Lab'ys Ltd. v. Janssen Pharma-
ceutica, N.V., 989 F.3d 1375, 1382 (Fed. Cir. 2021). We
noted an exception for “colorable constitutional claims,” id.,
but cannot say that Intel has presented such a claim here.
Intel argues the PTO exceeded its authority by denying
IPR “merely because EPR exists as an alternative” to chal-
lenge the patent claims. Pet. at 9. But that is not a fair
characterization of the PTO’s rationale for denying institu-
tion in this case. The PTO did not, as Intel suggests here,
act to categorically foreclose access to IPR. The PTO
simply concluded that EPR, rather than IPR, would be the
most efficient use of resources here because of the exam-
iner’s greater familiarity with the underlying issues. Intel
has not shown any clear and indisputable entitlement to
disturb that fact-specific conclusion given the limits on our
reviewability of non-institution decisions.
Intel’s statutory-based challenges, like those in other
cases where we have denied mandamus relief, are at bot-
tom merely challenges to what factors the Director may
consider when deciding whether to institute IPR and to the
PTO’s exercise of discretion not to institute such review.
Such challenges are beyond our review. See Mylan, 989
F.3d at 1382 (“Given the limits on our reviewability,
Mylan’s ultra vires argument cannot be a basis for granting
the petition for mandamus.”); see also In re Motorola Sols.,
Inc., 159 F.4th 30, 38 (Fed. Cir. 2025); Apple Inc. v. Vidal,
63 F.4th 1, 12 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (noting § 314(d)’s bar on re-
view applies to challenges that “focus directly and ex-
pressly on institution standards”); In re Cambridge Indus.
USA, Inc., No. 2026-101, 2025 WL 3526129 (Fed. Cir. Dec.
9, 2025).
Intel has also not presented a colorable constitutional
claim. It has not shown the PTO violated the Due Process
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IN RE INTEL CORPORATION 4
Clause based merely on acceptance of IPR filing fees and
Intel’s unilateral expectation that IPR would not be denied
in favor of other administrative review proceedings. See
Motorola Sols., Inc., 159 F.4th at 37–38 (holding that even
if petitioner relied on PTO practice at the time “when it
undertook the expense of filing the petitions,” that “reli-
ance alone is insufficient to establish a constitutional vio-
lation” (quoting United States v. Carlton, 512 U.S. 26, 33
(1994))); Mylan, 989 F.3d at 1383 (finding no requisite
property right for a petitioner’s Due Process Clause claim
to IPR or a specific set of criteria to decide whether to in-
stitute); cf. See Apple, ___ F.4th ___, 2026 WL 406495, at
*8 (noting that “[a] non-institution decision has no legal ef-
fect on the underlying patent rights and obligations”).
Nor has Intel presented a colorable equal protection
claim. Intel’s arguments that the PTO “had no rational ba-
sis for requiring EPR over IPR in this case but not others,”
Pet. at 22, and that the PTO “ignor[ed]” its precedent on
whether to deny institution under 35 U.S.C. § 325(d), id. at
23–27, amount to nothing more than disagreements with
the outcome and how the PTO may have applied (or not
applied) certain statutes related to institution. As such,
they do not present reviewable challenges. See Cuozzo
Speed Techs. v. Lee, 579 U.S. 261, 274–75 (2016) (“[T]he
application and interpretation of statutes related to the Pa-
tent Office’s decision to initiate inter partes review” are not
generally reviewable.); cf. Kechkar v. Gonzales, 500 F.3d
1080, 1084 (10th Cir. 2007) (holding no colorable constitu-
tional claim was presented when petitioner merely argued
that the evidence was “incorrectly weighed, insufficiently
considered, or supports a different outcome”).
We have considered Intel’s remaining arguments and
find them unpersuasive.
Accordingly,
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IN RE INTEL CORPORATION 5
IT IS ORDERED THAT:
The petition is denied.
February 24, 2026
Date
FOR THE COURT
Case: 26-113 Document: 21 Page: 5 Filed: 02/24/2026

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