Does someone have a patent that is stopping you from making an invention? Do you want to get rid of a competitor’s patent? You may be able to cancel it through a process called patent reexmaination.
Reexamination is when you ask the US Patent Office to take a second look at a patent you think never should have been granted a patent. We ask the Patent Office to reexamine that patent. Here’s how it works:
1. Search for inventions that existed before the patent you want to get rid of
To convince the patent office that the patent should never have been granted, we want to find inventions that existed before the patent was filed as a patent application, but the US Patent Office missed when they looked at the patent application.
2. Show to the Patent Office the inventions they missed
We explain to the Patent Office why we think the inventions we found are so similar to the patent we want cancelled that the patent never should have been granted.
3. The Patent Office decides whether they will reexamine the patent
The Patent Office will decide whether our arguments appear to be good enough to proceed with the reexamination process. If so, the patent will be assigned a patent examiner to reexamine the patent.
4. Respond to any arguments from the patent owner
Once reexamination starts, the patent owner can submit arguments as to why they believe the patent should not be cancelled. The patent holder will argue that the inventions we found are not similar enough to the patent and the patent should remain valid. We then have an option to respond to the patent owner’s arguments and argue why we still think the patent should be cancelled.
5. The Patent Office decides whether the patent will be cancelled
The Patent Office may decide to cancel the patent completely, keep it valid exactly as it is, or keep the patent valid but reduce the strength of the patent by adjusting the claims.
If you know of a patent that you want to potentially get rid of, we can see if there are inventions the Patent Office missed when they originally looked at the patent application. If we can make a good argument that the patent should never have been granted, we’ll request that the Patent Office reexamine the patent. You can even stay anonymous, so the patent owner doesn’t know who the bad guy is.
The fees to request patent reexamination can be found here: Patent Reexamination Fees
