Patent Law Research Guide

• The Patent Trial and Appeal Board is an administrative adjudicatory body.  
• According to its website, it "conducts trials, including inter partes, post-grant, and covered business method patent reviews and derivation proceedings, hears appeals from adverse examiner decisions in patent applications and reexamination proceedings, and renders decisions in interferences." (links and emphasis added.)  See Chart of Post-Grant Proceedings by Morgan Lewis, Lexis, Chart - Post-Issue Challenge Procedures Compared.  
• Up until September 16, 2012, the PTAB was called the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. It was renamed under the America Invents Act.
• The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences was created in 1984.  It took the place of the Board of Appeals (created in 1927) and the Board of Patent Interferences. See Chisum on Patents Section 11.06.  

ADVANTAGE = Free on the web

Search Final decisions  from 7/1/1997 on. Search by keyword, date, application number, patent number, publication number, case number, inventor name,

OR browse:
Informative Opinions - not binding
Precedential Opinions - binding.  
Key Decisions Involving Functional Claiming

• Search the PTAB docket and see full text of the filings, starting with cases 9/16/2012 to present.
• To avoid typing in the CAPTCHA, register forP-TACTS system (it's free). More information on P-TACTS is here.
• P-TACTS can also be used to file documents in PTAB cases.
• Search by AIA review number, patent number, application number, party name, technology center and case type.  Can not run a full text search of the docket or the underlying pleadings.

ADVANTAGES: Older coverage of selected filings (back to 1987).  Full text search of filings.  Appears to contain more PTAB decisions from the 80s and 90s than other databases. (According to Westlaw, it contains USPQ decisions, decisions from the USPTO's website, decisions submitted by attorneys and decisions retrieved from the USPTO paper archives.)  Has search field templates, although no field specifically geared toward patent law.  Has a unique way to find how the PTAB defines certain words - Construed Terms Index.

Full text search of the pleadings and motions in the pleadings and motions database.

When you Keycite a patent number,  relevant PTAB decisions appear (pull up the patent then look at the Citing References tab)

DISADVANTAGES:  No headnotes on the decisions.

• Advanced Search has fields for date, party name, docket number, headnotes (although the cases do not appear to have headnotes!), construed term, attorney and written by.
• Contains the decisions from United States Patent Quarterly (USPQ), but does NOT have the USPQ headnotes.
• Appears to contain more decisions from the 1980s and 1990s (before 1997) than Bloomberg or Lexis.
• PTAB Construed Terms Index - If you want to know how the PTAB defines a certain term, look for that term in the PTAB Construed Terms Index.  When you click on the term in the index, you will be directed to PTAB decisions that define the term.  (Much like the Words-Phrases WP() field search, the Construed Terms Index finds cases where that term is in quotes in the text of the decision - e.g. "tracking error".)

ADVANTAGES:  Contains older decisions than the UPSTO,  Might contain a few different PTAB decisions than what is on Bloomberg. Lexis contains selected older pleadings and motions, which are not on Bloomberg or USPTO. Full text search of pleadings and motions, unlike USPTO.  

DISADVANTAGES:  The decisions do not have headnotes, like the USPQ cases in Bloomberg.  However, they do have coreterms assigned, which can be used as search terms.  Does not have the specialized fields, such as patent number, that Bloomberg has.  Does not have sub-databases of different proceeding types, like Bloomberg has.  Docket coverage is only 2012-13, and filings are not accessible from the dockets - and not all the dockets are included.

Also note that when you Shepardize a patent number, it does appear to show PTAB decisions in the Shepard's report.

• Patent Office Board of Appeals (1928-1937); Board of Patent Appeals & Interferences (1937-2012); Patent Trial & Appeal Board (2012 through current).  Lexis contains the USPQ cases, but without the USPQ headnotes.
• Search template available, but it is the generic template for all agency decisions, not specific to patents.  So there are fields for party name, date, attorney, judge, but not for patent number, etc.
• Lexis assigns core terms to these, but not headnotes, like USPQ cases in Bloomberg

ADVANTAGE: More older decisions and better searching capabilities than USPTO.  Specialized search fields and sub-databases geared towards patent law. For decisions in the USPQ (United States Patent Quarterly) Reports, there are headnotes useful for finding more cases on point.  Full text docket search in Bloomberg Law, that also searches and gives access to the underlying filings.  

When you pull up a U.S. patent in Bloomberg Law, click on U.S Litigation to see PTAB decisions and links to dockets.

Includes:

• USPQ Patent Opinions: Cases and selected administrative decisions, back to 1929.  Includes USPQ headnotes.  See USPQ Classification Outline.  To search ONLY PTAB DECISIONS, go to USPQ PTAB DECISIONS.  
   
• PTAB Decisions:  All PTAB/BPAI decisions July 1997- present, Aug. 1994- July 1997 - selected decisions.  
   
• PTAB Dockets: Actual dockets from PTAB cases, with full text of the filings. From 9/16/2012.  Search full text of dockets AND of the fillings.   Advanced PTAB Docket Searches allow one to limit the search by type of proceeding, and basis of claim or technology center.