Does Our Patent System Really Need a Revamp?

By USIJ Executive Director Chris Israel

A bipartisan group of senators just introduced a bill that'd make profound changes to America's patent system.

As its name — the "Patent Trial and Appeal Board Reform Act of 2022" — suggests, the bill concerns the PTAB, an adjudicative body within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Congress created the PTAB over a decade ago, hoping it would serve as a cheaper, quicker, out-of-court venue for companies to contest the validity of patents.

Since its inception, the PTAB has sparked an enormous amount of controversy for frequently invalidating many of the patents it reviews. Some legal experts maintain the PTAB is working as intended and that it's only throwing out bad patents, while others argue the board's approach is too hostile to patent holders — and too friendly to Big Tech companies that file a majority of board's patent challenges.