Overview
In December, Steptoe partner Kate Tellez wrote an article about Plaintiff-side patent litigation. In that article she argued that now was a better time than ever to consider a patent monetization strategy and walked through several important considerations for attorneys new to patent assertion. Since then, the PTAB has made additional data available and the statistics continue to support her argument – institution rates by petition have continued to decline from 50% (for FY 2025 ending September 30, 2025), to 37% (for FY 2026 available data through Nov. 30, 2025).1
That data provides a compelling reason to consider asserting patent assets rather than merely holding them for defensive purposes. Doing so can present opportunity as well as risks unique to plaintiffs and patent owners. Read more from Kate's article published in Law360 here.
1 See https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Trial_Stats_November_2025.pdf.
