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ARTICLE · 21 FEBRUARY 2020

PTAB Basics: Key Features Of Trials Before The USPTO

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
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Since the passage of the America Invents Act in 2011, a significant proportion of patent litigation in the United States has moved to trials held before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the US Patent and Trademark Office.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Daniel Cooley
Daniel Cooley
Joshua Goldberg
Joshua Goldberg
Daniel Klodowski
Daniel Klodowski
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Since the passage of the America Invents Act in 2011, a significant proportion of patent litigation in the United States has moved to trials held before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These trials are relatively fast, inexpensive, and narrow in scope compared to litigation in other forums, such as district courts or the International Trade Commission. This paper presents a brief summary of key case milestones and strategic considerations for PTAB trials.

There are several types of adversarial post-grant proceedings at the PTAB, including inter partes review (IPR), covered business method review (CBM), and post-grant review (PGR). To date, IPRs have been the most popular PTAB trial proceeding, comprising 93% of petitions filed at the PTAB through August 31, 2019.1 The popularity of IPRs likely hinges, at least in part, on the proceeding's relatively less restrictive provisions regarding which patents are

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