Does someone have a patent that is stopping you from making an invention? Do you want to get rid of a competitor\u2019s patent? You may be able to cancel it through a process called patent reexmaination.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Reexamination is when you ask the US Patent Office to take a second look at a patent you think never should have been granted a patent. We ask the Patent Office to reexamine that patent. Here\u2019s how it works:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
To convince the patent office that the patent should never have been granted, we want to find inventions that existed before the patent was filed as a patent application, but the US Patent Office missed when they looked at the patent application.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
We explain to the Patent Office why we think the inventions we found are so similar to the patent we want cancelled that the patent never should have been granted.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The Patent Office will decide whether our arguments appear to be good enough to proceed with the reexamination process. If so, the patent will be assigned a patent examiner to reexamine the patent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Once reexamination starts, the patent owner can submit arguments as to why they believe the patent should not be cancelled. The patent holder will argue that the inventions we found are not similar enough to the patent and the patent should remain valid. We then have an option to respond to the patent owner\u2019s arguments and argue why we still think the patent should be cancelled.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The Patent Office may decide to cancel the patent completely, keep it valid exactly as it is, or keep the patent valid but reduce the strength of the patent by adjusting the claims.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
If you know of a patent that you want to potentially get rid of, we can see if there are inventions the Patent Office missed when they originally looked at the patent application. If we can make a good argument that the patent should never have been granted, we\u2019ll request that the Patent Office reexamine the patent. You can even stay anonymous, so the patent owner doesn\u2019t know who the bad guy is.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n