How does the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) affect reissue application examination?

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) can significantly impact the examination of reissue applications:

• Examiners must check the status of any pending PTAB trial related to the patent being reissued
• The PTAB may exercise exclusive jurisdiction over applications involved in pending trials
• Examiners should ensure the PTAB has not suspended the reissue application before taking action

As stated in the MPEP: The PTAB (as delegated by the Director) may exercise exclusive jurisdiction within the Office over every application and patent that is involved in a pending trial before it. Therefore, prior to acting on the application, the examiner should ensure that the PTAB has not suspended the reissue application.

Examiners can check the status of PTAB trials using the PTAB’s electronic file system accessible from www.uspto.gov.

To learn more:

• PTAB
• reissue application
• patent examination
• exclusive jurisdiction
• patent trial