PTAB Filings Dip as Arthrex Hangs Over Prior Decisions
March 4, 2020
In the fourth quarter of 2019, 332 petitions for America Invents Act (AIA) review were filed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), including 317 petitions for inter partes review (IPR), five petitions for covered business method (CBM) review, and ten petitions for post-grant review (PGR). In total, Q4 saw about the same number of AIA review petitions as the previous quarter, and 30.5% fewer petitions than in Q4 2018. Overall, 1,322 petitions for AIA review were filed in 2019, down 23% from the 1,719 brought the year before.
That year-over-year decline comes as parties and courts continue to debate the impact of the Federal Circuit’s decision in Arthrex, which held unconstitutional the appointment of PTAB administrative patent judges. An RPX analysis indicates that Arthrex may force a rehearing in each of hundreds of reviews under the AIA.
See RPX’s latest blog post for more information on trends affecting the PTAB in 2019.
