A bit delayed by the holidays, Harness IP’s latest report on trends and statistics in inter partes review proceedings is now available.

We note a couple key trends from the data. First, the popularity of IPR proceedings continues to grow. In the last quarter, IPR petition filings per week have increased again – up to about 20 filings per week. Second, petitions citing only new prior art fell 8%. We attribute this to the fact that parties are becoming more comfortable with the Board’s willingness to re-consider previously used art (including art that formed the basis of a previous reexamination of the subject patent). Third, petitions that include expert declarations have increased by 4%. Having monitored the Board’s decisions, this is not surprising given the Board’s embrace of the adjudicative nature of the proceedings – requiring actual evidence and not just attorney argument – to support a petition. Lastly, and as a bit of a spoiler for next quarter’s Report, we do note that the Board has now issued two Final Written Decisions. If you have been following our updates, you will not be surprised to learn that both decisions went against Patent Owner.

Email us at IPR-PGR@harnessip.com with any questions or comments about, or would like a hard copy of, our quarterly report.