By David O'Dell and Thomas King of Haynes and Boone, LLP
David O’Dell is a partner in the Richardson, TX office of the law firm of Haynes and Boone, LLP. His practice emphasizes patent and trade secret law, with a focus on post-grant PTO proceedings and patent prosecution. He may be reached at david.odell@haynesboone.com or 972.739.8635.
Thomas King is an attorney in the Orange County office of the law firm of Haynes and Boone, LLP. His practice emphasizes patent litigation, with a focus on post-grant PTO proceedings. He may be reached at thomas.king@haynesboone.com or 949.202.3059.
It has been about one year (September 16, 2012) since the USPTO began accepting petitions for inter partes review, or IPR. This is a new procedure at the Patent Office that was established by the America Invents Act (AIA) to permit members of the public to request the Office review of an issued patent. In many ways, IPRs are like the previously available inter partes reexaminations they replaced in September 2012. Key differences, however, include the fact an IPR is a trial before a board of patent judges (the Board), instead of an examination before a patent examiner. Also, IPRs have a much shorter expected time frame (an IPR is expected to last about half as long as the average reexamination), and the possibility for limited disco...
