PTAB Petitions Increase as Board Faces Sweeping Changes from Recently Reintroduced Bill

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw 366 petitions for America Invents Act (AIA) review in the first quarter of 2025, including 347 petitions for inter partes review (IPR) and 19 petitions for post-grant review (PGR). Filings were up by 12% compared to Q1 2024, which saw 328 petitions filed; and were 5% higher than Q4, during which 347 petitions were filed.

AIA Review Petitions Filed

That increase comes as the PTAB faces potentially sweeping changes under a bill now pending before Congress. On May 1, 2025, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) reintroduced the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership Act (PREVAIL Act), which if passed into law would require:

1. PTAB petitioners to have standing to present their challenges, and limitations on repeated petitions challenging the same patent;
2. Parties to choose, when making validity challenges, among the PTAB, the district court, or the ITC, ensuring that only a single forum hears a challenge;
3. The USPTO Director to issue separate written opinions when rehearing PTAB decisions; and
4. Membership groups to more clearly identify any real party in interest in the proceeding, particularly where that RPI is a group member.

Introduced in 2023 by the same group of lawmakers, the PREVAIL Act passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in November 2024. The vote was tight (11-10) and took some by surprise, given that a week earlier, Senator Coons had signaled that consideration of the PREVAIL Act would be delayed in light of an expected amendment by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and a manager’s amendment to address concerns from Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Peter Welch (D-VT). Just six senators voted in favor of Senator Cruz’s amendment, which sought to require the consent of small inventors to participate in PTAB proceedings but failed due to disagreements over the amendment’s proposed $24M threshold. On the other hand, the manager’s amendment—which in short, addressed concerns centered on the bill’s standing requirements, which the lawmakers had suggested “might prevent generic competitors and patient advocates from using the PTAB to challenge patents”—was adopted by the Committee.

RPX members can read more about the revived PREVAIL Act and another recently reintroduced reform bill—the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA)—here. A broader update on US patent policy in Q1 is also available for members here. Higher-level coverage can additionally be found in RPX’s report on the first quarter.