A major shift is taking place in the world of patents, and nowhere is this more evident than at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the body that hears patent challenges at the PTO.
The PTAB is now the No. 1 venue for patent challenges in the United States, with more cases filed there than in any single district court. The filing rate has accelerated rapidly since inter partes and covered business method reviews launched in the fall of 2012—authorized by the America Invents Act’s patent reforms. Until last spring, the PTAB saw about 30 petitions filed per month. By fall 2013, that number had doubled to about 60. And now, attorneys are filing between 90 and 100 petitions at the PTAB every month.
