With our extensive experience in patent prosecution before the United States Patent Office, we serve as counsel on ex parte appeals in patent applications where the examiner and applicant are at an impasse on claim language or the proper scope of rights in view of the prior art.
Patent Trial and Appeal Board
We are also prepared to represent you in any one of the various proceedings conducted by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board when issued US patent claims or ownership are put into question. Our attention to detail, depth of legal experience, and vigilance make us available to deliver a top-notch legal representation.
PTAB proceedings include inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), and derivation proceedings. In an IPR, the novelty and/or obviousness of issued patent claims are disputed based on one or more printed publications or patents. In a PGR, without a civil action previously filed challenging validity of a patent claim, unsettled legal questions can be raised. Currently few in number, derivation proceedings are available for when ownership is put into question. While we advise applicants how to prepare and prosecute their patents to better withstand post-grant attack at the PTAB including filing strategies, prosecution techniques, follow-on applications, and successful portfolio management, in a competitive market, these proceedings are sometimes unavoidable.
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
In the area of trademarks, brand owners must appear before the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to challenge an existing registration that interferes with the goodwill and strength of their brand, or to defend an opposition brought against an application for registration of your mark. Our representations before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board have included both defending opposition proceedings of published marks and petitioning the cancelation of registered marks.