PTAB Discretionary Denial Deep Dive
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What is the PTAB Discretionary Denial Deep Dive?
This dashboard tracks the USPTO's new two-step decision process for Inter Partes Review (IPR) and Post Grant Review (PGR) proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
Here's how the two-step process works: Patent Owners start a discretionary denial phase by asking the Director to deny the petition before taking a deep look at whether the challenges in the petition are any good.
Petitioners can then file an opposition brief.
The Director—with input from PTAB judges—first decides whether to DENY the petition outright or REFER it for full merit-based review.
This new process aims to make PTAB proceedings more efficient and transparent.
The first graph shows the popularity of the new process to Patent Owners, while second graph shows decision outcomes and the Director's processing efficiency.
View the total number of Discretionary Denial briefs submitted by Patent Owners and the corresponding Opposition briefs filed by Petitioners.
Total Patent Owner Briefs:
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Total Petitioner Briefs:
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These counts reflect the total number of individual Director Discretionary Decision documents (Deny or Refer). We simply compute how many proceedings contain a decision and do not account for whether the decision applies to related proceedings.
Deny Decisions
(Proceedings):
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Refer Decisions
(Proceedings):
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All Decisions
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When multiple related proceedings receive decisions on the same day, we count them as one decision to show distinct outcomes rather than document counts.
Deny Decisions
(Outcomes):
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Refer Decisions
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All Decisions
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📋 Refer Decision Status Breakdown
When a Discretionary Denial Request results in a "Refer" decision from the Director, the Petition is referred to a merit panel to determine whether the Petition demonstrates a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner would establish the invalidity of a challenged claim. Possible outcomes of a "Refer" decision include:
• Institution Denied: The merits panel denies the Petition on the merits and no trial is instituted.
• Trial Instituted: The merits panel grants a full IPR trial.
• Pending: Cases awaiting a merits panel determination.
• Other: Cases resolved without a merits panel decision (settled, withdrawn, terminated, etc.).
Note: Percentages are calculated only based on merits panel decisions (Institution Denied vs. Trial Instituted) to show the success rate of petitions accurately by excluding cases that are still pending or had other dispositions.
This section provides the average number of days between the filing of a Petitioner's request and the Director's decision. The freshness indicators show when the USPTO's records were last checked and when the dashboard was last updated in response to fresh data.
Average Days to Decision:
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API checked date:
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Data last updated:
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Identifies which parties were most successful with discretionary denial strategies. These rankings reveal which Patent Owners best leverage this process and which Petitioners most effectively thwart denial attempts.
Top 10 Patent Owners (Deny Decisions)
Top 10 Petitioners (Deny Decisions)
Top 10 Petitioners (Refer Decisions)
Top 10 Patent Owners (Refer Decisions)
Identifies the most successful lead counsel for a Patent Owner or Petitioner.
Top 10 Patent Owner Counsel (Deny Decisions)
Top 10 Petitioner Counsel (Refer Decisions)
Groups and Solo Decisions
This table below groups proceedings as a single outcome when it is determined that decisions issued on the same day are related.
| Outcome | IPR Number | Petitioner | Patent Owner | Decision | Decision Date |
|---|
All Proceedings Data
This table provides the current status of all proceedings where a patent owner has filed a discretionary denial brief. When a decision is issued, the table provides a link to download the decision.
The Technology Center page provides insights into how different USPTO Technology Centers fare in the Discretionary Denial process.