Originally published in BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, 85 PTCJ 88, 11/23/2012.

AIA-based challenges to issued patents reduced to a trickle as parties prefer to ‘wait-and-see’ how the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will process its small case load.

Only 43 inter partes review petitions and 13 petitions challenging covered business methods, submitted by a total of 33 companies, have been filed in the eight weeks since the Sept. 16 availability of those administrative litigation options enabled by the America Invents Act.

Most of those filings, in fact, were in the first four weeks. From Oct. 15 to Nov. 9, only nine IPR and zero CBM petitions were filed. Further, of the CBM petitions, nine were filed by Liberty Mutual Life Insurance Co. against patents owned by its competitor, Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.