PTAB Petitions in January Lowest Since March 2014

In an article analyzing January 2016 data from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), Managing Intellectual Property referenced statistics from Finnegan’s AIA Blog. Finnegan analyzed the final written decisions that the PTAB issued in December 2015. In the 49 final written decisions, the Board cancelled 534 (89.15%) of the instituted claims and declined to cancel 65 (10.85%) of the instituted claims. Patent owners did not concede any instituted claims by filing a disclaimer. On a per-case basis, no instituted or substitute claims survived in 38 (77.55%) of the decisions, all instituted claims survived in three (6.12%) of the decisions, and a mixed outcome occurred in eight (16.33%) 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," explained Finnegan.