How is the timeliness of third party requester comments affected by service in inter partes reexamination?

The timeliness of third party requester comments in inter partes reexamination is directly affected by the service of the patent owner’s response. According to MPEP 2666.06:

“35 U.S.C. 314(b)(2) mandates that, in order to be timely, a third party requester must file any written comments to the patent owner’s response (to an Office action on the merits) within a period of 30 days from the date of service of such patent owner’s response.”

To address potential delays in actual receipt of the patent owner’s response, the USPTO has established a procedure:

• If a patent owner’s response is received by the third party requester more than 5 business days after the date of service on the certificate of service, the third party requester may submit a verified statement specifying the date of actual receipt.
• This statement should be attached to the third party requester’s comments.
• The USPTO will then consider the date of service to be the date of actual receipt by the third party requester.

This procedure ensures that third party requesters are not unfairly disadvantaged by delays in mail or service when calculating their 30-day response window.

To learn more:

• inter partes reexamination
• third party requester
• timeliness
• service of papers