The Board has denied a total of 27 petitions for inter partes review. The denials have been for a wide variety of reasons. The following pie chart summarizes the general reasons for denial.
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Thus, as can be seen from the chart above, the majority of petitions have been denied due to issues with the contentions on the merits (37%). However, in certain instances, the petitioner has taken what I have characterize as “unreasonable” positions on claim construction. This may not necessarily be accurate, since in some of these cases, the Board has concluded that the specification has failed to link corresponding structure to the claimed functions in 112, paragraph (f) limitations, and the petitioner has attempted to construe the claim nonetheless. This accounts for 18% of denials. Seven percent of denials were caused by the PTAB denying a motion for joinder. These petitions were also late, and could be grouped with the one year bar petitions (11%). In certain situations, the petitioner failed to offer a claim construction. In some such cases, the Board concluded that the petitioner’s construction was implicit in the way it was applying the prior art, and construed the claim in a way that resulted in the petition being denied. This accounted for 19% of the denials. In 1 case, (4%), the petition was denied because the petitioner had filed an earlier DJ action.
