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October 30, 2014 PTAB Trial Statistics

By Eugene T. Perez and Brian Cannon

As of October 30, 2014, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) has updated the statistics of the number of inter partes reviews (“IPR”), post-grant reviews of covered business method patents (“CBM”), and derivation proceedings (“DER”) that have been filed. These stats are shown below, and can be found at:

http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/bpai/stats/aia_trial_statistics.jsp

Graph/chart form of these statistics are found here:

http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/bpai/stats/103014_aia_stat_graph.pdf

The proceeding statistics are found here:

http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/bpai/stats/aia_trial_proceedings.pdf

It is worth noting that the first regular PGR (not for CBM) was filed on August 5, 2014. As shown below, there are now 2 PGR petitions that have been filed.

The PTAB determines whether or not an IPR or PGR will be granted.  The PTAB may not authorize the IPR unless the petition and response shows there is a “reasonable likelihood” that the petitioner would prevail with at least one of the challenged claimed.[1] The granting of a PGR trial requires an initial threshold requirement of “more likely than not”, and is slightly higher than the IPR threshold standard. However, the latest statistics clearly show that the initial threshold has been met the majority of the time (see the AIA Trials Instituted/Disposals chart below). Note that the new fiscal year (2015) for the USPTO has started. The number of AIA Petitions, where 2,008 IPR petitions have been filed, is as follows:

NUMBER OF AIA PETITIONS

 FY Total IPR CBM
PGR
DER
2012 25 17 8
2013 563 514 48
1
2014 1,494 1,310
177
2
5
2015
183
167
16
Cumulative 2,265 2,008 249
2
6

 

The graphic form of the AIA filings is shown below (note the decreased filing from Jan – March this year, but a surge since April 2014):

The petitions by technology breakdown are:

AIA PETITION TECHNOLOGY BREAKDOWN – FY 2015

 Technology

Number of Petitions Percentage

Electrical/Computer

136 61.6%

Mechanical

40 20.1%

Chemical

10 5.3%

Bio/Pharma

32 13.0%

Design

0 0.0%

 

The pie chart for these filings are as follows:

During an IPR, PGR or PGR for CBM, the Patent Owner (“PO”) can optionally file a Preliminary Response.[2]  Clearly, according to these statistics, the PO is choosing to file a Preliminary Response most of the time (overall 81.0%). The number of filed PO Preliminary Responses is in the next chart:

NUMBER OF PATENT OWNER PRELIMINARY RESPONSES

 Filed Waived
FY2013 FY2014
FY2015
FY2013 FY2014
FY2015

IPR

237 829
106
63 202
9

CBM

33 116
10
2 18
2

 

The institution rate now includes fiscal year 2015 as shown below. Note that there are already several cases of joinder in 2015.

AIA TRIALS/INSTITUTED DISPOSALS

Trials Instituted Joinders Denials Total No. of Decisions on Institution Disposals
Settlements Final Written Decisions* Other**
IPR FY13 167 10+ 26 203 38   1

FY14

557 15+ 193 765 210 130 1
FY15
86
41+
21
148
11
24
CMB FY13 14 3 17 3 1

FY14

91 1+ 30 122 27 13 2
FY15
7
3
10
6
2

 

+67 cases joined to 42 base trials for a total of 109 cases involved in joinder.

*Includes judgment on request for adverse judgment.

**Includes terminations due to dismissals.

A month-to-month view of the filings:

More information on the USPTO PTAB can be found here.

 


  1. 77 Fed. Reg. 48764 (Aug. 14, 2012).
  2. Id. at 48756.