The Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued 50 Final Written Decisions in June. It was a relatively difficult month for patent owners, with the Board cancelling 555 (80.32%) of the instituted claims while declining to cancel 114 (16.50%) of the instituted claims. Patent owners conceded 22 (3.18%) instituted claims through motions to amend or disclaimer in cases reaching a final decision. For comparison, the cumulative average rate of claims cancelled in final written decisions is about 75%, and the rate of cancelled claims in May was about 48%.
On a per-case basis, no instituted or substitute claims survived in 37 (74%) of the decisions, all instituted claims survived in 10 (20%) of the decisions, and a mixed outcome occurred in 3 (6%) of the decisions. A mixed outcome occurs where at least one instituted or substitute claim remains patentable, and at least one is cancelled, in a Final Written Decision.
The overall cumulative instituted claim survival rate, broken down by technology center, is as follows:
More detailed cumulative statistics on the Board's IPR and CBM decisions, updated through July 1, 2017, are available here on the AIA Blog.
Statistics regarding the outcome of appeals to the Federal Circuit are available here.
Lists of the top 10 PTAB judges by panel appearances and authored opinions are available here.
Numbers of final written decisions by technology center and instituted claim survival rates by technology center are available here.
Various other PTAB metrics collected and generated by Finnegan are reserved for the use of Finnegan and its clients. Stay tuned to the AIA Blog for the latest updates, analysis, and statistics on all aspects of PTAB and Federal Circuit practice. Subscribe to the AIA Blog at the bottom of the page to receive notifications of new posts via email.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
