Quote:
Originally posted by vicki
what I meant was that step #1 would seem to me to get the patent overturned. To do that there is no need to use up legal fees in a court battle. The patent and trademark office will do this on their own when given proof of prior art. It's now a normal proceedure to have them reexamined.
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what Vicki is referring to, is that a patent can be petitioned to USPTO for review, to re-examine the patent in light of new prior art that wasn't found or disclosed at the time of the filing.
If you read this website
http://www.YouMayBeNext.com you will see it is a struggle to get before them to review a patent.
Also, given an impending court case, the USPTO may decide to hold off on the review, to allow the court to make their decision.. they don't want to create the situation where one validated the patent and the other invalidated it, causes all kinds of legal mess.
It's a double-edged sword, because if you don't present good enough prior art, then they may get tired of hearing another petition for the same case.
What would have been ideal is to have all the great prior art presented to the USPTO, prior to any lawsuits.....then as you pointed out, the great expense of a court trial could be avoided.
This is exactly what I am proposing to do with Fight The Patent Foundation.
In addition to wanting to start this movement, I am also readying/studying Patent Law, with the goal of taking the Patent Exam. You don't need to be an attorney to take the exam, and having passed the exam means you can deal with patent issues and the USPTO.
This just allows me, a technically skilled person, to have the credentials to do battle on patent cases by assisting lawyers with JD and patent law credentials fight the fight.
Fight the Patent!