Filing or Defending an Inter Partes Review: A Practitioner's Guide to Petitions, Institution, and Estoppel
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide runs an inter partes review from the day the complaint is served to the final written decision and its consequences, from both chairs. It covers the ninety-day decision window, the prior art search that should precede any filing decision, real party in interest analysis, ground selection under the all-or-nothing institution rule, the anatomy of the petition, the expert declaration and how it fails, the preliminary response and discretionary denial, the trial phase and its single deposition, the motion to amend, the oral hearing, and the estoppel that attaches at the end. It treats the parallel district court case as part of the same problem rather than a separate one. Each stage gives the deadline, the deliverable, and the failure mode.
IP and Technology > Patent Litigation | Guide | Published 1 February 2026 - Updated 6 August 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This guide runs an inter partes review from the day the complaint is served to the final written decision and its consequences, from both chairs. It covers the ninety-day decision window, the prior art search that should precede any filing decision, real party in interest analysis, ground selection under the all-or-nothing institution rule, the anatomy of the petition, the expert declaration and how it fails, the preliminary response and discretionary denial, the trial phase and its single deposition, the motion to amend, the oral hearing, and the estoppel that attaches at the end. It treats the parallel district court case as part of the same problem rather than a separate one. Each stage gives the deadline, the deliverable, and the failure mode.
Keywords: inter partes review petition, PTAB practice, institution decision, preliminary response, real party in interest, one-year bar, discretionary denial, prior art search, expert declaration, motivation to combine, claim charts, level of ordinary skill, motion to amend, objective indicia, deposition of declarant, oral hearing, final written decision, estoppel, stay pending review, settlement and termination
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