Top 5 PTAB Decisions Of 2019 For PTAB Practitioners

There were a number of high profile developments at the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) in 2019. New procedures for amending claims, Practice Guide updates to thwart parallel petition filings, a successful constitutional challenge based on the Appointments Clause, and another SCOTUS review of the PTAB appeal bar. But, not all of these developments impact the day-to-day life of PTAB practitioners. Of greater interest to PTAB practitioners are the developments that change the game for the average AIA trial, with this in mind, below are my Top 5 PTAB Practitioner Developments of 2019.

At a high level, 2019 was all about new PTAB precedent. With the Director's Precedential Opinion Panel changing the way decisions were designated in 2019, more precedent issued in 2019 on AIA trials than all of the proceeding years combined. This guidance settled some long-standing disputes among panels on such questions as issue joinder, while also refining discretionary factors