PTAB Publishes August 2016 Trial Statistics – 34% of Final Written Decisions in Favor of Patent Owner

by | Oct 13, 2016 | Final Written Decisions, Petitions, PTAB News, PTAB Trial Basics, Trial Institution

By Matt Johnson (profile)

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has released AIA trial filing and disposition numbers for August 2016. Filings remained near the 150 mark, with 143 total trials being requested in August, 136 of those being requests for Inter Partes Review.  This is a tick down from 157 total filings in July and shy of the FY 2016 high of 176 in June. Projected filings for FY 2016, which ended September 30th, are at 1668 petitions, down about 12% from 1897 filings in FY 2015.

PTAB Petitions Filed Through Aug 2016

PTAB Petitions Filed Through Aug 2016

The August trial institution rate was high at 76.3%, with 74 of 97 institution decisions resulting in PTAB trials, led by strong results for petitioners in the Mechanical/Business Method art (82.4% – 14 of 17) and the Electrical/Computer art (75.3% – 55 of 73). This compared with a FY 2016 rate of 68.4% and an overall institution rate just shy of 70% since PTAB trials were introduced in September 2012.

PTAB IPR Institutions - August 2016

PTAB IPR Institutions – Through August 2016

PTAB Institution Decisions by Tech Center

PTAB Institution Decisions by Tech Center Through August 2016

Forty-four IPR Final Written Decisions were issued in August, with 21 (47%) of those decisions cancelling all instituted claims and a very substantial 15 decisions (34%) finding all claims not unpatentable. This is notable, as historically, patent owners have only been able to rescue all of the claims of a patent, once instituted, about 15% of the time. In all, 61.8% of instituted claims were cancelled at the end of PTAB trials in August, significantly lower than the historic rate of 82.3%.

IPR Trial Results per Claim

IPR Trial Results per Claim Through August 2016

The full set of August 2016 PTAB statistics can be accessed here.

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Matthew Johnson

Partner at Jones Day
Matt Johnson is one of the Firm's primary contacts on practice before the PTAB. Currently co-chairing the Firm's PTAB subpractice and involved in proceedings at the Board since the first day of their availability in September 2012, Matt regularly represents clients as both petitioners and patent owners at the Board. He further works as an advocate for clients in appeals from Board proceedings at the Federal Circuit.