Fifty-three of the 341 entries on the USPTO’s list of designated Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions no longer carry that status, and only ten show when it changed. Two of the most recent, in February 2026, changed what happens when a petitioner corrects its real parties in interest.
Before you read
About what share of the decisions on the USPTO’s designated list are no longer designated?
About one in six: 53 of 341 entries, or 16%.
Part 1 of 7
On February 3, 2026, the USPTO announced that two decisions on real parties in interest “are de-designated and no longer binding on the PTAB.” They had let petitioners correct their list of real parties and keep the original filing date. The stated reason: they “conflict with the decision in Corning Optical,” which “holds that a petitioner’s amended identification of RPIs requires according the petition a new filing date.”
“… are de-designated and no longer binding on the PTAB.”
A brief written the day before that relied on them was citing guidance the Office had just withdrawn. So was any template built on them.
Part 2 of 7
The PTAB publishes most decisions without special status. A few are designated. Precedential decisions bind the Board within their scope. Informative decisions show good practice but don’t bind. De-designation removes that status.
The tempting reading
A de-designated decision has been overruled and can’t be cited.
What de-designation means
The decision isn’t vacated or overruled. It goes back to being an ordinary Board decision and moves to the USPTO’s archive. It can still be cited for its reasoning, but it no longer binds or guides as a designated decision.
Part 3 of 7
Our October 2026 inventory of the USPTO’s list has 341 entries, 338 of them unique case-and-paper entries.
341 entries
Tap a segment to read what it covers.
Source
Most of the archive is older ex parte and interference law. The AIA-trial entries are the ones most likely to show up in a current IPR or PGR brief.
53 entries, grouped by subject using the USPTO’s topic labels. The three outlined bars are the 14 AIA-trial entries; the other 39 are ex parte and interference law.
Source
Part 4 of 7
The USPTO gives a de-designation date for 10 of the 53. For the other 43, you can’t tell from the list when the decision stopped counting, which matters if you are checking whether an older brief was right when it was written.
Ten de-designations in eight dated points; two dates cover two decisions each. Dates as shown on the USPTO’s list in our October 2026 inventory.
Source
Part 5 of 7
Three de-designations on real parties in interest came within about four months: SharkNinja in September 2025, then Adello and Proppant in February 2026. In the same stretch, the Office designated decisions that enforce disclosure: Corning Optical (precedential except § II.E.1) in October 2025 and Tianma in March 2026.
Adello and Proppant let a petitioner correct its real parties and keep the original filing date.
Under Corning Optical, an amended RPI identification means a new filing date. In Curium, that new date did not make the petition time-barred.
Curium shows why precision matters. After additional parties were identified, the petition got a new filing date, and that date didn’t make it time-barred. A correction that is still allowed can still create a timing problem.
Part 6 of 7
0 of 5 reviewed
Part 7 of 7
De-designation doesn’t overrule the reasoning, so an archived decision can still be cited as an ordinary Board decision, and some may still persuade. Thirty-nine of the 53 are older ex parte and interference entries that seldom arise in AIA trials. And the RPI shift isn’t absolute: Curium, informative since February 2026, accepted a correction with a new filing date where no time bar applied.
It tells you
It doesn’t tell you
The takeaway
A complete update changes what the next lawyer will recommend, not only how the old case is labeled.
Precedential decisions bind the Board within their designated scope. Informative decisions show the Office’s reasoning but do not bind the Board. Court opinions are cited for what they decided; later history was checked on the date shown above.