IPR and CBM Statistics for Final Written Decisions Issued in April 2016

In the 46 Final Written Decisions issued by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in April, the Board cancelled 651 (88.45%) of the instituted claims and declined to cancel 51 (6.93%) of the instituted claims. Patent owners conceded 34 (4.62%) of the instituted claims through motions to amend or disclaimer. These decision outcomes are considerably worse for patentees than the decisions issued in March 2016, when 65% of all instituted claims were cancelled and nearly 30% of instituted claims survived.

On a per-case basis, no instituted or substitute claims survived in 38 (82.61%) of the decisions, all instituted claims survived in only 2 (4.35%) of the decisions, and a mixed outcome occurred in 6 (13.04%) of the decisions. A mixed outcome occurs where at least one instituted or substitute claim remains patentable, and at least one is cancelled, in a Final Written Decision. These decisions were also significantly less favorable to patentees than the decisions issued in March 2016, where no instituted claims survived in 66.67% of cases and all instituted claims survived in 28.57% of cases.

The following resources are also available on the AIA Blog:

• More detailed cumulative statistics on the Board’s IPR and CBM decisions, updated through April 1, 2016
• Lists of the top 10 PTAB judges by panel appearances and authored opinions
• Numbers of final written decisions by technology center

Various other PTAB metrics collected and generated by Finnegan are reserved for the use of Finnegan and its clients.