Your Patent Rights: New Rules and More Challenges
Recent decisions and rulings from the PTAB and the federal courts have significantly altered the landscape of patent enforcement and defense. Not long ago, most cases settled long before trial, often due to the high costs of litigating disputes to completion through the district courts. But now the trend is toward increased litigation at the PTAB to assess the validity of asserted patent claims.
Why do so many corporations, universities, start-ups and individual inventors across many industries call on us to assess, protect and defend their rights in trials and appeals? Knowledge, experience and determination. Our team is composed of attorneys with highly technical and scientific backgrounds who have practiced many years before federal agencies and courts. They are trained to handle your most sophisticated post-grant patent needs. We have the knowledge and litigation experience to help you get the right results.
How We Can Help With Post-Grant Proceedings
Post-grant proceedings, particularly Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs) and Post-Grant Reviews (PGRs) before the PTAB offer an efficient, quick and affordable way to challenge and defend patent rights. Your case is adjudicated by the judges of the PTAB, who are technically skilled attorneys with science and/or engineering degrees, along with their law degrees. They are better-prepared than many judges at the district court level to hear validity challenges frequently involving highly technical, scientific and patent law concepts – and at a much lower cost.
We have significant experience in IPR and PGR matters before the PTAB. On behalf of petitioners, we have obtained cancellation of challenged claims in Final Written Decisions by the PTAB and defended the cancellation of those claims on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. On behalf of patent owners, we have defended the validity of claims challenged in IPR proceedings and persuaded the Board to deny institution of IPRs.
Other post-grant proceedings include patent interference, patent reexamination and patent reissue. Here, too, our team has earned a national reputation for handling complex, high-stakes disputes before the PTAB. In patent interferences, one party challenges a competitor’s right to a patent, and the PTAB must determine who was the first to invent. Patent reexamination often takes shape as coordinated serial or parallel challenges to patents. And reissue proceedings can be an effective parallel proceeding for a patent as well, although there are risks.
Whether you are a plaintiff or a defendant, we can guide you in balancing the risks and benefits and making the right strategic decisions.