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Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)
Practical Law Glossary Item 0-508-3165 (Approx. 3 pages)
Glossary
Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)
An administrative board within the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) created by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) that:
- Replaced the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences as of September 16, 2012.
- Is responsible for hearing and ruling on certain disputes concerning US patents and patent applications, primarily:
- appeals by a patent applicant from a USPTO patent examiner's final refusal to allow a patent application or adverse decision in an ex parte patent reexamination proceeding;
- inter partes (IPR), covered business method review (CBM) (until September 15, 2020), and post-grant review (PGR) proceedings filed by a party challenging the patentability of an issued patent;
- derivation proceedings filed by a subsequent patent applicant claiming that an earlier patent applicant for the same invention derived the invention from the subsequent patent applicant; and
PTAB decisions concerning IPRs, CBMs, PGRs, and ex parte reexamination proceedings may be appealed only to the US Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. However, a civil action against the USPTO at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia may be instituted after a final PTAB decision in certain circumstances:
- Where a patent applicant is dissatisfied with a PTAB decision concerning the final rejection of the patent application unless the applicant has appealed to the Federal Circuit (35 U.S.C. § 145).
- In a derivation proceeding where the losing party initially filed a notice of appeal from the PTAB decision to the Federal Circuit, the adverse party may request that further proceedings instead be conducted in the Eastern District of Virginia (35 U.S.C. § 146).