Patent challenges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have dropped sharply, with only 97 inter partes review petitions filed between July and September 2026, down from 327 petitions during the same period in 2025.
The administrative review process, designed to weed out weak claims cheaply, is losing ground.
The numbers point to a steep decline in administrative challenges. Only 37 IPR petitions were filed in September 2026.
That compares with 129 petitions in December 2024. December 2024 marked the final full month before current leadership began reshaping board operations.
Congress established inter partes review in 2012 to give companies a faster and less expensive alternative to district court litigation. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board was meant to correct mistakes made by examiners working under tight time constraints.
Between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, the board instituted between 66% and 68% of reviewed petitions. By fiscal year 2026, which ended in September, that rate fell to 41%, eff.org reported.
Preparing a petition requires finding prior art, hiring experts, and building complex technical arguments. Companies stopped filing when the process became unpredictable.
Institution only means the board agreed to hear the challenge. It does not guarantee a win.
USPTO Director John Squires has vacated at least 29 decisions granting institution of proceedings, terminating cases before a final written decision. These include matters that board judges had agreed to hear or that Squires himself previously allowed to proceed, according to eff.org.
In Revvo Technologies v. Cerebrum Sensor Technologies, the Director vacated an institution decision and remanded the case to the board. The board instituted review again, but the Director reversed that decision, citing claim construction inconsistencies between the board and district court.
That ruling serves as a basis for terminating other instituted proceedings. The shift leaves startups and developers with fewer defenses against patent trolls.
