Category: Ex Parte Prosecution
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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…