Overview
This week, IPWatchdog is hosting its sixth annual PTAB Masters conference virtually. Though the conference only started this morning (January 29, 2026), it’s already off to a great and highly-informative start.
The first panel of the day included former Acting Director, and current Deputy Director of the USPTO, Coke Morgan Stewart. Deputy Director Stewart spoke on the settled expectations doctrine, obviousness analyses, and the potential for written decisions regarding discretionary denials and/or institution. The panel echoed the current trend of stronger patentee rights at the PTAB. With regard to settled expectations, Deputy Director Stewart emphasized that patent owners invest substantial money and resources over many years to maintain and utilize their patents, underscoring the significance of those long-term commitments in shaping expectations. On the topic of obviousness, Deputy Director Stewart explained her position that if there are too many references to invalidate a claim, the petitioner’s obviousness argument should be considered less favorably. Finally, Deputy Director Stewart hinted that the PTAB will, in some scenarios, provide written decisions for discretionary denial and/or institution decisions. Specifically, written decisions may be provided if the decision would inform practitioners of new factors used to make institution decisions or if the decision involves a unique fact pattern that may clarify criteria for institution. We will be watching to see how all of this plays out in upcoming PTAB decisions.
During the second panel of the day, former Deputy Chief Administrative Patent Judge Jaqueline Wright Bonilla discussed how post-grant proceedings have changed over the last year:
- Discretionary denials are making big waves at the PTAB. Since October 20, 2025, about 50% of outcomes in Director institution decisions have been discretionarily denied, 5% have been denied on the merits, 35% have been referred to the PTAB, and only 11% have been instituted by the Director.
- Institution rates have steadily dropped since 2024. In 2024, roughly two out of every three (~67%) PTAB cases were instituted. That rate dropped in 2025 to 44%, and thus far in 2026, we are seeing only 21% of cases getting instituted.
- Former Deputy Chief APJ Bonilla also provided a breakdown of the institution rates by technology. The overall institution rate since March 26, 2025 has been 36%. Since that date, we have seen a greater institution rate in cases involving Biopharmaceutical/Chemical (56%) and Mechanical/Biomedical (44%) technology. On the other hand, we are seeing a lower rate of Electrical Engineering technology being instituted at only 29%.
We are looking forward to hearing from the remaining panels this week. If you want to attend the virtual IPWatchdog Masters conference, you can still register here: https://ipwatchdog.com/ptab-masters-2026/.
