PTAB Not A "Death Squad"—More Like A Surgeon

Xilinx, Inc. v. Intellectual Ventures I LLC; Illumina, Inc. v. Trs. of Columbia Univ.; Micron Tech., Inc. v. Bd. Of Trs. of Univ. of Ill.; CBS Interactive, Inc. v. Helferich Patent Licensing, LLC 

In the final written decisions of eight inter partes reviews (IPRs), all issued in the first half of March, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) sided with the petitioner in each proceeding, canceling all claims under review. While the PTAB has recently stated that it is not a "death squad" for patents, it does seem to effectively remove "diseased tissue" from the patent system.  Recently several patents have emerged from IPR proceedings unscathed.  (See accompanying article, this edition.)