Category: Ex Parte Prosecution
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Patent Law Reform or Just Patent Law Change???
There is a lot of talk about the various patent reform bills that have been proposed as of late, like S.23. Phrases like “patent reform” sound great, but are these proposed bills patent law reform or merely patent law change? If you reform something, the connotation is that you improve it or make it better. If you change…
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In re Tanaka
Suppose you issued a patent with several claims, including dependent claims. Now, suppose you wished you had claimed and issued a certain dependent claim, but did not have it in the originally issued patent. That new dependent claim is narrower than your independent claim that issued, so this is not a case of a broadening reissue. Now…
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Patent Prosecution in View of Reexamination
In my last post I introduced reexamination briefly. Once you understand that patent claims can be cancelled in a reexamination, it begs the question of how patent applications and claims can be drafted to survive reexamination. I have both good news and bad news. THE BAD NEWS The bad news is that it is impossible to know all of the prior art…
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Introduction: Why all of the interest in reexamination?
How many times have you heard: “They got a patent on that! There’s nothing new about that. It’s been out there for years!”? For those versed in patent matters, that is not a surprising reaction to certain issued patents. The patent issuance procedure in the U.S. relies on examination of a patent application. The sources and tools for examination are increasing…