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ARTICLE · 29 OCTOBER 2020

Where Have All The Bio/Pharma IPRs Gone?

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The IPR program in general has been wildly successful in its intended purpose of providing a lower-cost alternative to patent litigation,...

United StatesIntellectual Property
Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, L.L.P
Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, L.L.P
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The IPR program in general has been wildly successful in its intended purpose of providing a lower-cost alternative to patent litigation, and the number of filings has remained relatively steady (though there were somewhat less in 2019 and 2020 as compared to previous years). The same is not true of IPRs filed in the TC 1600 space.

This chart shows IPR petition filings in the TC 1600 space by fiscal year:

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Petitions rose steadily to an all-time high in 2017, and then have continued to drop off dramatically, with 2020 having only 67 petitions-barely more than in the first full year of the program's existence. Notably, PGRs in the TC 1600 space have fallen off slightly as well, though not as dramatically.  These statistics come from Oblon's TC 1600 Post Grant Library, and closely track the PTO's own statistics illustrating this issue.  

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