Fifth anniversaries are milestone occasions. Following our prior reports marking the passage of three and four years of inter partes review practice, we proudly offer this year’s report, Inter Partes Review Proceedings: A Fifth Anniversary Report.

In five years, IPRs have caused a dramatic shift in the way patent disputes are litigated—and settled. IPRs and other Patent Trial and Appeal Board trials have become so important that practitioners formed a new organization, the PTAB Bar Association, which focuses on PTAB practice. A substantial body of decisions from the PTAB, District Courts, U.S. International Trade Commission, Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a significant amendment of the rules last year, have shaped the contours of IPR practice, clarifying some aspects and raising new questions about others. Perhaps the most important IPR-related case to date is currently pending before the Supreme Court, in which the Court will consider the fundamental question of whether IPRs are constitutional. Click here to read the full report.