Patent Interpartes Review/PTAB

Interparties Review (IPR) at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that was first put into action in 2013 at the direction of the America Invents Act of 2011. Upon request and a hefty filing fee, IPR can invoke a review of the validity of any claims of a patent by the US. In the opinion of this author, the most damaging aspect of IPR is the review of the validity of a patent claims under a preponderance (a majority) of evidence, rather than the previous higher standard of clear and convincing evidence. In the early years of IPR (2013-2018), the rate of invalidity of patent claims was quite high, but has decreased in recent years as older patents that were issued under previous less challenging standards of patent law have been either not asserted against infringers, or have gone through the process of IPR and been invalidated.