Review of the Same Patents at PTAB and District Court

This Review of the Same Patents study compares 438 patents that had invalidity determinations made by both the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and district courts. The PTAB and court agreed on 53% of the patents and disagreed on 47%. When they disagreed, the district court took the side of the inventor 4 times as often as the PTAB (39% to 8%).

Notably, district courts allow challenges under §101 (eligibility), §102 (novelty), §103 (obviousness), and §112 (written description and enablement). PTAB typically only allows §102 and §103. However, with only two grounds they go against the inventor four times as often as the district court. Therefore, the discrepancy is even worse than this indicates.

Another way of looking at it is the PTAB invalidated 79% while the district court invalidated 48% of these patents that were reviewed in both venues.

Download the full report and list of patents.

US Inventor, since its founding, has supported the innovation efforts of the “little guy” inventors. We are proponents of “securing for limited times to … inventors the exclusive right to their … discoveries” in order to “promote the progress of Science and Useful arts.” (U.S. Constitution Article I, § 8, Clause 8.) Our broad experience with the patent system, new technologies, and creating companies, gives us a unique perspective.