The America Invents Act (AIA) was enacted in 2011—after years of legislative efforts toward patent reform—and brought with it some of the most significant changes to the U.S. patent system most practitioners had seen in their lifetimes. The AIA affected nearly all facets of patent practice, but perhaps the most important change was the creation of the Patent Trials and Appeals Board (PTAB). The PTAB was heralded as the second-look review the patent system needed to address the expanding activities of patent trolls—entities that filed meritless, shakedown-style lawsuits, based on weak patents, to collect small settlements from many companies across industries.

But some believe the PTAB has been too effective. Decried the “patent death squad,” critics have raised concerns that the PTAB, in practice, has been overkill, resulting in the invalidation of many good patents along with the bad and resulting in an unintended damping effect on U.S. patent rights on the whole.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]