With over 2,000 petitions filed since AIA trials became available, filings have exceeded even the USPTO’s ambitious projections. As of October 6, 2014, the PTAB has issued more than 130 final written decisions on the merits in inter partes reviews (IPRs) and covered business method reviews (CBMs). While basic statistics on filings, institutions, settlements, and decisions are available, little is known regarding how the PTAB analyzes instituted cases. For many important trends—such as how the PTAB has handled claim disposition and claim construction issues—following the cases or machine-tracking the data is not sufficient to understand the PTAB’s methodology. To interpret the decisions and reliably identify trends, data analytics aided by experience with PTAB proceedings is needed.
