Since 2015, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit started to issue decisions in appeals from the Patent Trial
and Appeal Board, the affirmance rate of the PTAB's decisions
has hovered around 70% to 80%.
The rate of the court reversing or vacating in full or in part a
PTAB decision has remained low. Through the end of 2023, the
Federal Circuit affirmed every issue in about 74% of PTAB appeals,
including inter partes review, covered business method and
post-grant review appeals, but not ex parte appeals, while the
reversals and vacaturs, including partial affirmance decisions,
amounted to fewer than 23%.1
Appellants were even less successful in 2024.2 We
identified 219 Federal Circuit decisions for PTAB appeals: 184
(84%) were affirmed in full, 12 (5.5%) were reversed, at least in
part, and 23 (10.5%) were vacated, at least in part, and remanded.
This article reviews those decisions and identifies the types of
issues that were successfully appealed.