What are the consequences of a patent owner failing to respond to an Office action in an inter partes reexamination?

Failing to respond to an Office action in an inter partes reexamination can have serious consequences for the patent owner. While the MPEP section provided doesn’t directly address this, it refers to another section that does:

“See MPEP § 2666.10 for the consequences of the failure by the patent owner to respond to the Office action.”

Although not explicitly stated in the given text, the consequences typically include:

• The reexamination proceeding may continue without the patent owner’s input
• The examiner may issue a Notice of Intent to Issue Inter Partes Reexamination Certificate (NIRC) based on the current record
• The patent owner may lose the opportunity to argue for the patentability of the claims or to make amendments
• In extreme cases, all or some of the claims may be canceled or significantly limited

It’s crucial for patent owners to respond to Office actions within the given time frame to protect their patent rights during the reexamination process.

To learn more:

• inter partes reexamination
• patent owner
• failure to respond
• Office action consequences