Welcome to the Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings Seminar live blog! This morning’s panel is entitled Patent Trial, Appeal Board Transformation and AIA Implementation. The panel’s moderator is Oblon, Spivak Partner and seminar co-chair Scott A. McKeown, and the featured panelists are Hon. Robert Clarke, Chief of Staff, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Patent Legal Administration, Oblon, Spivak’s Stephen G. Kunin, and Irem Yucel, Director of the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU), USPTO. Here are some highlights:
Hon. Robert Clarke: Judge Clarke provided updates and 2011 statistics from the Office of Patent Legal Administration including the rate of per curium decisions, the rate at which judges become members of the board, as well as the outcomes at the Federal Circuit. Amibiguities need to be sought out before IP reexamination.
Stepehn G. Kunin: Stephen shared an overview of the AIA and its Board Provisions including the sections providing derivation proceedings, inter partes review and post-grant review proceedings, patent trial and appeal board, and the transitional program for covered business method patents. Until the new proposed rules come out, it will be hard to see what the patent holder will be facing.
The estoppel effect that is now applicable to the ITC is of interest. Another provision of interest references the covered Business method patent program.
Irem Yucel: Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) has grown to about 100 people strong, and is hiring new examiners in anticipation of the reexamination boom. The CRU is now working through the prism of the AIA and with a suggested rule package to make the EP side of the ledger more streamlined and simply easier to use by the public.
Stay tuned for more from the Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings Seminar live blog!
Tags: AIA Implementation, Hon. James Donald Smith, Irem Yucel, Patent Trial Appeal Board, PLI, Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings, Post-Grant USPTO Proceedings Seminar, Scott Mckeown, Stephen G. Kunin, USPTO
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