The Cost-Effectiveness Of PTAB Proceedings

PTAB litigation is less expensive and faster than the old ways.

An old joke about patent litigation among trial counsel that produces cringes when told to clients is that patent litigation is known as the "sport of kings." That is because of the great expense of investigating, pleading, discovery, motion practice, expert discovery, pretrial preparation, and trial in a traditional patent case. Like that other sport of kings, horse racing, often only the most well-heeled can afford to play and finish the game.

So one of the main objectives of the America Invents Act of 2011 was to establish an alternative to those expensive proceedings. Thus the Patent Trial and Appeal Board was born, with the objective, among other things, of offering a cost-effective alternative to expensive district patent litigation.