Takeaways - - Expired patents may be eligible for reexamination. - Owner’s options during reexamination of an expired patent are severely limited. Similar to reexamination practice, which has long allowed reexamination...more
In the mid-2000s, the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) determined that reexaminations would be more consistent and legally correct if performed by a centralized set of experienced and specially trained Examiners. As a result, the...more
Based on feedback from the public on the use of After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) and hesitancy to accept the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s proposal for a new fee to participate in AFCP 2.0, the...more
Takeaways: 1. ODP in reexamination and reissue remains unpredictable despite Allergan 2. Patent Owners should carefully review ODP rejections to ensure they are proper Obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) is a legal...more
Filing a continuation application from a parent patent is an implicit admission that obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) applies to the resulting continuation patent. A Terminal Disclaimer in the continuation patent over...more
When a patent is issued under the seal of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, it is signed by the Director of the USPTO or an Office official. The patent contains a grant to the patentee, and a printed copy of the...more
On March 22, 2021, the US District Court for the District of New Jersey found a patent’s claims not invalid under the doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting (OTDP) in view of a reference patent from the same patent...more
A reissue application may be filed by a patent owner to correct an error in a patent. Reissue applications are useful to correct substantive errors that cannot be corrected with a certificate of correction. ...more
It has been nearly 10 years since the U.S. Biosimilars Pathway (the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act) was enacted. The first biosimilar product in U.S. history was approved and launched in 2015. Ten biosimilars...more
The movie Zootopia was hysterically funny because it equated animal stereotypes to what we encounter every day. For example, the best employee at the DMV was named Flash – who was a sloth. Actually, the entire DMV was run by...more
In an opinion addressing the standard for claim construction of a patent that expires during reexamination, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s or Board’s)...more
Patenting - Patenting generally offers a superior means for legally protecting most inventions, particularly since: • copyright, when available, does not provide a broad scope of protection; and • the...more