PTAB Filings Collapse 64% in Q1 2026 While Ex Parte Reexamination Requests More Than Double Under Director Squires

PTAB petition filings fell to a historic low in the first quarter of 2026, as a sweeping discretionary denial policy under USPTO Director John A. Squires continues to reshape how parties challenge patent validity in the United States. According to the Patent Dispute Report for Q1 2026, published by Unified Patents on April 14, 2026, PTAB petitions declined 64.2% year-over-year to just 131 filings — the lowest quarterly total since the America Invents Act (AIA) established the inter partes review (IPR) system in 2012. IPR petitions specifically dropped 66.3% compared to Q1 2025.

IPR Filings Hit All-Time Low

The dramatic decline in IPR filings reflects the compounding effect of multiple policy changes since Director Squires assumed leadership of the USPTO. Through a discretionary denial order dated February 24, 2026, Director Squires discretionarily denied 64% of all PTAB petitions he reviewed. While the institution rate for petitions that survive discretionary review and reach the merits stage has remained near 70%, the volume of petitions reaching that threshold has contracted sharply.

USPTO cumulative statistics confirm the shift: the overall PTAB institution rate has fallen from 68% in FY2024 to 42% year-to-date in FY2026. The institution rate collapsed to near-zero percentages in late 2025 — patent law analysts at Patently-O reported approximately a 0% institution rate in November 2025 — before stabilizing above 40% in early 2026.

Ex Parte Reexamination Requests Surge 157%

As the IPR pathway narrowed, practitioners pivoted to ex parte reexamination as an alternative validity challenge vehicle. Q1 2026 saw 223 reexamination requests filed — more than double the 108 requests in Q1 2024 and the 109 requests in Q1 2025, representing a 157.1% year-over-year increase.

Ex parte reexamination is procedurally distinct from IPR in a critical respect: once a third party files the request, the reexamination proceeds as a matter between the USPTO and the patent owner, with the requestor largely sidelined from subsequent proceedings. This limits the aggressive, party-driven discovery and argument process that makes IPR an attractive challenge vehicle, but the channel remains open to parties for whom IPR is now effectively unavailable.

Director Squires introduced an additional procedural change on April 1, 2026, through an Official Gazette Notice: patent owners may now submit a 30-page paper arguing against the existence of a substantial new question of patentability (SNQ) before the USPTO decides whether to order reexamination. This pre-order submission right took effect on April 5, 2026, and applies to both newly filed and pending reexamination requests.

Three Policy Pillars: Excluding Foreign State Actors, Protecting U.S. Manufacturing, Restoring RPI Disclosure

Director Squires’ PTAB policy has cohered around three principal directions.

First, the exclusion of foreign government-owned entities: on March 18, 2026, the Director issued a precedential ruling barring foreign governments and entities in which they hold a stake from filing IPR petitions or serving as real parties in interest (RPIs). The ruling extended and formalized an earlier January 2026 decision targeting Chinese state-linked semiconductor manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC).

Second, a U.S. manufacturing nexus factor: a March 11, 2026 Director Memorandum added three new discretionary factors for IPR and PGR institution decisions, centered on whether the products at issue are manufactured and sold in the United States. The Q1 2026 Unified Patents data reflects an early impact — the PTAB institution rate against non-practicing entities (NPEs) was more than 15 percentage points lower than the rate against operating companies.

Third, the restoration of strict real-party-in-interest disclosure requirements: Director Squires reversed the more permissive RPI standards applied under prior administrations, requiring petitioners to fully disclose all interested parties before institution. The change is intended to prevent foreign state-backed actors from exploiting PTAB proceedings through intermediary entities.

Practical Implications

The convergence of collapsing IPR filings and surging reexamination requests creates a new practical landscape for IP practitioners on both sides of patent disputes.

Petitioners seeking to invalidate patents must now weigh the lower predictability and reduced party control of ex parte reexamination against the near-certain discretionary denial that a typical IPR petition faces. Pre-filing analysis of the petitioner’s RPI profile, U.S. manufacturing nexus, and discretionary denial risk factors has become an essential threshold step before any PTAB filing.

Patent owners, conversely, now have an earlier-stage procedural opportunity to contest validity challenges through the new pre-order submission mechanism. For high-value patents facing reexamination, a well-crafted pre-order submission could significantly influence whether the USPTO orders reexamination at all.

The Q2 2026 Unified Patents dispute report, expected in July 2026, will provide the first evidence of whether reexamination filings continue to rise and whether the new pre-order submission procedure is influencing USPTO institution decisions.