Patent infringement suits boomed in U.S. District Judge Alan Albright’s courtroom in 2021, but they were flat across federal courts as a whole, according to Unified Patents’ annual Patent Dispute Report: Year in Review, released Monday.

America Invents Act (AIA) challenges dropped by 12 percent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, but ex parte reexaminations were on the rise. Unified Patents Chief IP Counsel Jonathan Stroud chalked it up to the PTAB’s Fintiv framework discouraging some AIA petitioners, plus a few reexaminations that led to stay orders in high-profile cases.