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In re Swanson (Fed. Cir. 2008)

By Donald Zuhn, Kevin Noonan, Chris Singer, Sherri Oslick, and Jason Derry

By Kevin E. Noonan -- Re-examination, whether ex parte under 35 U.S.C. § 302-307 or inter partes under 35 U.S.C. § 311-318, is a procedure intended to provide an alternative to patent litigation, which Congress characterized as being expensive and inefficient in passing legislation establishing these two routes of post-grant challenge (see H.R. Rep. No. 107-120 (2002)). Perhaps unexpectedly, both avenues have been increasingly used during litigation, as a way to limit the scope of asserted claims, invalidate patents-in-suit altogether, and provide leverage towards settlement. In some instances, re-examination requesting defendants have been able to obtain a stay in the...

Full post as published by Patent Docs on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).