Statistics Show IPRs Favor Patent Challenges

The America Invents Act of 2012 introduced Inter Partes review as a new way to challenge the validity of patents before the USPTO. Subsequently the survival rate of challenged claims has proven to be remarkably low. As of April 6, 2015, 74 percent of challenged claims did not survive. This has prompted calls for reform, and those calls are gaining traction. In their Today’s General Counsel article on the issue, attorneys Raymond Mandra and Corinne Atton point out that, in sharp contrast to the process in the U.S., the results of post-grant opposition proceedings challenging patents issued by the European Patent Office are far more even.