Study of the Post Grant Procedures Is Needed Now

By Robert Stoll in IP Watchdog

The procedures created by the America Invents Act (AIA) for challenging patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have now been in place for a couple of years. These procedures include: Inter Partes Review (IPR); Post Grant Review (PGR) and Covered Business Methods (CBM). As of June 2015, over 3500 petitions had been filed for the combined procedures. The numbers are way above what the Office expected, but the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has been churning through the petitions at a rapid rate. The new methods for challenging patents are statutorily required to be completed within a year of institution in most cases, so we are beginning to collect data and discern patterns from those settled or decided cases.