By Daniel Parrish ( June 28, 2017, 2:06 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board has a near-perfect track record of issuing a final written decision within 12 months of instituting trial in post-grant proceedings. However, in at least four cases, it has not issued a final written decision within 12 months of instituting an inter partes review.[1] All four matters involved joinder of third parties to the original petition. Curiously, there is no express indication on the dockets for any of these cases that the one-year deadline has been extended for "good cause" or adjusted due to "joinder" under 35 U.S.C. § 316(a)(11). Any extension or adjustment of the one-year time frame may affect parallel district court litigation(s), as parties and district courts often expect that a final written decision will issue within one year of institution....