Patent Planet: RPX - The PTAB Sees a Relatively Small Percentage of Patents Litigated in District Court

Friday, September 18, 2020

RPX - The PTAB Sees a Relatively Small Percentage of Patents Litigated in District Court - Comment

On September 16, RPX published a short article: The PTAB Sees a Relatively Small Percentage of Patents Litigated in District Court September 16, 2020. It noted that only 22% of the court cases also see an inter partes review (IPR). Thus, the RPX report might give some patent owners a nice feeling: you probably won't face an IPR where more than half of US patents see claims invalidated.

But think about it. If RPX is correct that IPRs have only been filed against 4,330 patents since available in 2012, while the USPTO reports 11,148 IPR petitions filed from beginning (Sept. 16, 2012) until recently (Aug. 31, 2020), we have a difference. Let's assume both RPX and the USPTO are correct. Why the difference? I am thinking the difference is attributable to the current practice of filing multiple petitions against certain patents. Many patent may escape an IPR, but for valuable patents, it's "war by attrition."