Patent Law Practice Center

Tech Giants Weigh In On USPTO Post Grant Rule Making Effort

Written by Scott McKeown, Partner at Oblon Spivak, Practice Center Contributor and author of Patents Post Grant blog.

Group 2 Comments on AIA Implementation Due to USPTO Tomorrow

As pointed out last week, the USPTO has been busy fashioning new rules to implement the various provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA). Comments on Group 2 Rules, which include Inter Partes Review & Post Grant, must be submitted by November 15th.

Last week, Cisco, Google, Verizon and Intuit submitted joint comments (here) directed solely to the implementation of post grant proceedings, namely, Inter Partes Review (IPR) and Post Grant Review (PGR). Not surprisingly, these tech giants (i.e., targets of serial patent infringement suits) are especially supportive of post grant mechanisms as an alternative to traditional litigation. The Group’s comments encourage the Office to adopt liberal standards for initiation of IPR and PGR, limit the potential estoppel affect of a concluded proceeding, and provide procedural flexibility for petitioners. (more…)

Verizon Attacks On Two TiVo Time-Shifting Patents Among The Reexamination Requests Filed The Week of 7/18/11

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

In 2009, TiVo sued Verizon and AT&T for infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,493,015 and 7,529,465 related to time-shifting and play-back of media streams.  Verizon has now requested reexamination of the ‘015 and ‘465 patents (see inter partes Request Nos. (7) & (8)).

Precision Biosciences filed for reexamination of Cellectis’ Patent No. 7,842,489 for single-chain endonucleases useful in genetic modifications of various sorts (see ex parte Request No. (7)).  The two companies are engaged in several infringement and declaratory judgment actions in North Carolina and Delaware involving the ‘489 patent and certain related patents.

RIM requested reexamination of Mobile Media Ideas’ Patent No. 5,732,390 (see ex parte Request No. (9)).  Moble Media has sued RIMfor infringement of the ‘390 patent in the Eastern District of Texas.

Medical device patents are the subject of two requests, one for Voda’sU.S. Patent No. 6,475,195 for an angioplasty catheter guide (see inter partes Request No. (5)) and one for Boston Scientific’s U.S. Patent No. 5,922,021 for an intravascular stent (see ex parte Request No. (1)).

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TiVo Attack On Four Verizon Patents Among Reexamination Requests Filed Week Of 5/30/11

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

On Thursday, TiVo requested reexamination of three Verizon cable box patents, and on Friday, of a fourth Verizon patent (see ex parteRequest Nos. (9) through (12)).  These requests are only the latest development in an on-going patent war between the two companies that includes fronts at the ITC and in two District Courts.

Reexamination was requested for SynQor’s U.S. Patent No. 7,272,021 for power converters (see inter partes Request No. (1)).  In January, Judge Ward enjoined Artesyn/Astec and a series of other companies from infringing four SynQor patents, among them the ‘021 patent.  It is not yet clear from the PTO records who filed the request.

And Abbott Diabetes Care requested reexamination of three DexComanalyte-sensor devices in the long-term patent dispute between the companies (see ex parte Request Nos. (4), (5) & (6)). (more…)