Summary: Another sign that software patents in the United States are a dying breed because closer scrutiny gets applied even outside the courtroom

NOT ALL is doom and gloom. The USPTO, for one thing, is unable to grant software patents like it used to because PTAB keeps invalidating such patents and the US Supreme Court takes the side of PTAB (confer Cuozzo [1, 2, 3]), which unlike USPTO examiners does not strive to maximise the number of granted patents. The National Law Review has a new article about it, titled "Supreme Court Gives Deference to USPTO in Post Grant Proceedings," and there is even a sponsored 'article' about it in IAM this week.

The major news, however, isn't Cuozzo but the following June report from MIP. It says:

According to the Docket Navigator database, 176 PTAB petitions were filed in June, consisting of 166 inter partes review (IPR), nine covered business method and one post-grant review (PGR) petition.

This made it comfortably the busiest month for petition filing so far this calendar year, ahead of February’s 150 petitions. This was despite it being the lowest month for CBM petitions since January 2016 and for PGRs since March 2016.

This surge in invalidation/reassessment activity goes in cohesion with the sharp decline in litigation activity. We hope this will further cement the end of software patents in the United States. ⬆