Patent Law Practice Center

USPTO Warns Practitioners On Abusive Filings In Patent Reexamination

The following post comes from Scott A. McKeown, partner at Oblon Spivak, Practice Center Contributor and writer for Patents Post Grant.

On January 10, 2011, I co-chaired PLI’s Reissue & Reexamination Strategies and Tactics with Concurrent Litigation 2011. Mr. Kenneth Schor, Senior Legal Adviser of the USPTO’s Office of Patent Legal Administration (OPLA) participated and presented a very informative lecture on proper petition practice in patent reexamination.

Mr. Schor made several points of great interest to all post grant practitioners namely:

1) It is improper to oppose many petitions in inter partes reexaminations or provide sur-replies to properly opposed petitions;

2) Improper petitions will be referred to the Office of Enrollment & Discipline (OED), and

3) Abusive petition practices are believed to be aggravating a growing petition inventory. (more…)