At the 10th Annual Patent Law & Policy Conference late last month, USPTO Director Iancu announced that more USPTO guidance on Section 101 was forthcoming. As he explains, “the USPTO plans to issue guidance to help our examiners and applicants who struggle with these issues every single day”. Throughout his address, he focused on a […] On Tuesday, December 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Helsinn Healthcare v. Teva Pharmaceuticals centered around the meaning of the phrase “On-Sale” under the AIA and whether the term was changed from the previous meaning. Helsinn originally sued Teva for infringement of four patents relating to palonosetron dosages in chemotherapy treatments in the […] On October 10, 2018, the USPTO announced it would adopt the Phillips claim construction standard as of November 13, 2018. That means that as of yesterday, any petitions filed are no longer reviewed under the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (BRI) standard that the PTAB had applied since its creation under the AIA. Instead, they will be […] The U.S. Patent Office announced that the After-Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) will be extended another year. Originally implemented in May 2013, the program allows for amendments and responses for the examiner’s consideration to be submitted after a Final Office Action has been sent. Prior to the implementation, applicants were limited to filing appeals […] Starting November 13, 2018, all IPR, PGR, and CBM proceedings will conduct their claim construction using the Phillips standard put forth by the Federal Circuit in 2005, turning away from the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (BRI) standard it currently uses. This brings the PTAB in line with the Federal Courts and the ITC in examination standards. […] Best Lawyer Magazine has named it’s 2019 Best Lawyers in Washington, D.C., including Maier & Maier’s Stephen G. Kunin among its Intellectual Property Law recognitions. Mr. Kunin’s illustrious career includes more than three decades at the United States Patent Office, spending one of those decades as the Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy, and 13 […] The USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) has issued two revisions to the Standard Operating Procedures with the stated goal of “increasing transparency, predictability, and reliability across the USPTO”. The first, SOP 1, aims to provide clarity and certainty to the PTAB practice of expanded panels, which has come under criticism in recent years […] In their latest triumph at the PTAB, Maier & Maier PLLC has won a major victory for GREE, Inc. by securing a non-institution decision, overcoming 3 challenges to their social gaming patent asserted by Supercell Oy in PGR2018-0037. The challenged patent (9,662,573) covers a method for controlling a server device, a server device, a computer-readable […] Under 315(b) of the AIA (America Invents Act), Inter Partes Review “may not be instituted if the petition requesting the proceeding is filed more than 1 year after the date on which the petitioner, real party in interest, or privy of the petitioner is served with a complaint alleging infringement of the patent.”[1] The Click-to-Call […] The USPTO has published a Notice in the Federal Register of proposed patent fee changes for public comments. The fee adjustments resulting from this effort will not be implemented until the January 2021 timeframe. The proposed average five percent increase to fees is similar to fees rising by 1.6 percent annually over a three year […]