The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)

What the PTAB does

Under 35 U.S.C. § 6 the Board:

1. Hears ex parte appeals from adverse examiner decisions in applications, reexamination and reissue proceedings.
2. Conducts AIA trials: inter partes review and post-grant review, plus the now-ended covered business method review.
3. Decides derivation proceedings about whether an earlier applicant’s invention was derived from another.

Who sits on it

The Board consists of the Director, the Deputy Director, the Commissioners for Patents and Trademarks, and the administrative patent judges (APJs). Trials and appeals are decided by panels of at least three judges.

Review of Board decisions

• The Federal Circuit reviews final written decisions in AIA trials and appeals from ex parte decisions.
• After the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Arthrex (2021), the Director has authority to review final decisions of Board panels in AIA trials. The USPTO publishes its Director Review process, which is updated from time to time.

Precedential, informative and representative decisions

The Board designates some decisions as precedential (binding on later panels) or informative (guidance but not binding). Earlier lists of “representative” orders and notices are collected under PTAB decisions.

Statistics

For how often petitions are instituted and how trials end, see our statistics guide, which points to the USPTO’s current data.