Attack By ebay On Automatic Auction Patents, Among 28 Reexamination Requests Filed Week Of 3/28/11

Here is the latest installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor….

Late last year eBay was sued by XPRT for infringement of four patents claiming aspects for automatic auctioneering.  Last week, eBay requested inter partes reexamination of each of those patents (inter partes Request Nos. (2), (3), (4) & (8)).

There was also a race to the PTO.  On Monday Vorsteen Consulting filed a request for ex parte reexamination of its U.S. Patent No. 6,878,358 (that claims a process for removing mercury from flue gases), together with a preliminary amendment narrowing the original claims and adding 33 new claims (see ex parte Request No. (2)). The same day, a third party requested reexamination of the same patent (see inter partes Request No. (1)), presumably presenting a different perspective on the validity issue.

Last week also featured requests for reexamination of a number of medical/biotechnical patents, including commercially significant patents claiming adipose-derived stem cells (inter parte sRequest No.(6) and methods for treating cancer with hyaluronic acid and NSAIDS (ex parteRequest No. 13). (more…)

04.7.11 | Reexamination Requests | Stefanie Levine

Auburn V. IBM Among The Reexamination Requests Filed Week Of March 14, 2011

Here is the latest installment of Reexamination Requests from Scott Daniels, of Reexamination Alert and Practice Center Contributor….

Auburn v. IBM is not a “sweet-sixteen” match-up.  It’s an infringement litigation pending in the District Court in Alabama since 2009.  IBM has now requested reexamination of Auburn’s patents – U.S. Patent Nos. 7,194,366 & 7,409,306, both claiming ways of estimating the reliability of integrated circuits and thereby reducing the cost of making chips (see inter partes Request Nos. (2) & (3)).

Xilinx continued its assault on Intellectual Ventures’ patents – this week requesting reexamination of U.S. Patent No. 7,080,301 (see inter partes Request No. (7)), and perhaps U.S. Patent Nos. 6,065,880 and 6,687,865 (see ex parte Request Nos. (16) & (18)). The PTO records are, as yet, unclear regarding the requester of the latter two requests, but it appears to have been Xilinx.

Apple, the clear leader in recent times in the number of requests filed, continued its practice of seeking reexamination of each patent-in-suit whenever it is sued (see ex parte Request Nos. (10), (11) & (13)).  Other noteworthy requests include those filed against Lincoln Globaland 3M patents (see inter partes Request Nos. (1) & (11) and ex parteRequest No.(1)). (more…)

03.25.11 | Reexamination Requests | Stefanie Levine