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Electronic Filing of USPTO Post Grant Trial Requests
PRPS System Provided for Receiving Post Grant Patent Trial Requests
As previously discussed, the USPTO will shortly begin rolling out a new electronic filing system to support the post grant patent trial proceedings of the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB). The system will be known as the Patent Review Processing System (PRPS). Over the next 2-3 days the USPTO will be testing and receiving feedback from the public on features of the PRPS.
A link to PRPS will be available on the USPTO web page in the coming weeks, but what will the portal receive on September 16th?
In gauging demand, not only at my own firm, but in talking with others, I would estimate roughly 40-60 trial requests for 2012. Some will certainly be deposited immediately on September 16th (to avoid the closing 12 month litigation window). A steady stream of petitions are expected thereafter, through to 2013. (this is in addition to the surge of patent reexamination filings that are now headed to the USPTO). Not surprisingly, most of the filings will be for Inter Partes Review (IPR) as Post Grant Review petitions are not possible until “first inventor to file patents” begin to issue some years down the road. However, there will also be some Transitional Business Method Patent Challenges (TBMPC). TPCBMPs being perhaps the earliest, and best gauge of the USPTO’s commitment with regard to “limited” discovery.
Scott, I would wager that your guess of only 40-60 post-grant trial requests in total for 2012 is a better guess than the PTO’s!
Besides the greatly increased costs, complexities and pressures of these new interference-run-like APJ inter partes proceedings, patent attorneys are not famous for being eager to try something new in general. Demonstrations of that include the long slow growth over several years in the use of reexaminations. It took generations before attorneys for patent owners began regularly asking for jury trials instead of accepting bench trials, to their advantage. Only relatively recently have some patent attorneys finally discovered how lucrative contingent fee patent suits can be.