Will take unjust patentability decisions to the Patent Trail and Appeal Board, if necessary, and can refine the scope of protection of your already-issued patents and support your defense against validity challenges.
- Sometimes, when agreement cannot be reached with a Patent Examiner, it is desirable to have a second opinion. Since the Patent Examiner assigned to an application will not change unless the Patent Examiner leaves their position, the appeal process may be the best way to overcome the Examiner’s interpretation of an application. As an alternative to taking an application to the Patent Trial and Appeal board, there is a pre-appeal process that requires further consideration of contentious points of the application by the Patent Examiner the Supervisory Patent Examiner of that examiner and a third Patent Examiner.
- When a patent issues and the Applicant believes they may have been entitled to a broader scope of protection it may be possible to broaden the scope of protection with a Reissue Patent Application submitted within 2 years of issuance of the patent.
- If a party feels a patent may be invalid in view of one or more references, the party may submit a petition for an Inter Partes Review to challenge the validity of the patent. The patent owner has opportunities to refute the position of the petitioner throughout the review.
