As of 2019, post-grant proceedings have been in use for seven years. Designed as an alternative to district court litigation, post-grant proceedings have offered litigants a faster and more cost-effective forum for resolving patent validity disputes. In turn, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) continues to be one of most popular venues for litigating patent disputes, with 1,464 petitions filed in FY19 alone.

Even with this foundation, post-grant proceedings continue to evolve—both procedurally and substantively—from year to year, and 2019 was no exception. In the last year alone, the trial practice guide was updated for the first time to provide guidance on a variety of issues, from motions to exclude to procedures for oral hearing before the Board; the claim construction standard at the PTAB was changed to the Phillips standard used in district courts and at the International Trade Commission, thereby creating a unified process across all potential forums; and the one-year time bar was expanded to apply even when a properly served infringement complaint is dismissed without prejudice, thus barring defendants from filing an inter partes review (IPR) petition after the one-year period has lapsed.