MPEP § 1207.01 requires that PTAB Appeal Briefs be met with a 3-employee Technology Center Conference on whether to answer each brief; importantly, many appeal briefs are not answered, thereby leading to favorable results for the patent applicant/appellant.

The USPTO Patents Dashboard Administrator recently provided a written response to DBJG indicating that MPEP § 1207.01 Technology Center Appeal Conferences shut down a significant number of PTAB Appeals. According to the USPTO Patents Dashboard Administrator, during last fiscal year, only 65% of PTAB Appeal Briefs were answered and forwarded to the PTAB for decision. And, when an examiner does answer an appeal brief, Appellants prevail over 44% of the time at the PTAB. The PTAB affirms examiner decisions only 55% of the time. These last two percentages come from the PTO PTAB Tables above, issued on a monthly basis. Significantly, in November 2021, the PTAB affirmed examiner decisions only 53.7% of the time (see the line in between the two tables, leftmost box).