The AIA is 3 Today And There’s Only One Winner For What Has Been Its Biggest Impact

On the three year anniversary of the signing of the America Invents Act (AIA), Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine asked industry experts, “What has been the biggest impact of the AIA?” The responses indicated that most experts agreed the new post-grant proceedings—inter partes review (IPR) in particular—have had the biggest impact.

IAM contacted Finnegan attorney Jeff Totten for his thoughts. Totten stated, “Since they became available in September 2012, post-grant validity challenges have modified parties’ approach to litigation and licensing. These new procedures, offering a relatively fast forum with a lower burden of proof than district court, have proved popular with those facing patent-infringement lawsuits. Courts have been willing to stay litigation pending the outcome of these patent-office proceedings. And in response, patent owners have changed their patent-procurement strategies, asserted larger groups of patents, and added other causes of action—such as trade-secret misappropriation—to their patent-infringement complaints.” Totten expects these trends to continue, as long as the success rates for post-grant validity challenges remain high.