Observations: Three Weeks After Supreme Court's SAS Institute Decision

Anyone reading this post is likely well aware that on April 24 the Supreme Court put an end to the PTAB's practice of instituting inter partes review (IPR) on less than all claims challenged in an IPR petition in SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu.  See  Supreme Court: No More Partial Institution Practice in AIA Reviews.  It is certainly too soon to identify any reliable trends in the PTAB's handling of new institution decisions in the wake of the SAS decision.  In fact, it is quite likely that the PTAB is still itself trying to evaluate how the SAS decision will affect its ability to institute IPR proceedings at the same rate it had prior to the Supreme Court decision.  Nonetheless, a review of the new institution decisions entered by the PTAB since the April 24 SAS decision proves interesting for at least two reasons.