The Reexamination Center

On March 17, Rob Sterne  and Lori Gordon presented “Reexamination & Concurrent Patent Litigation in the District Courts and USITC” to more than thirty-five intellectual property law students at the George Washington University Law School.  Their hour long presentation included an initial discussion on the topic of  patent reexamination and concurrent patent litigation strategies — one of the most important and rapidly developing topics in patent enforcement in the United States — and concluded with a lively question and answer session.

This week the Official Gazette noticed seven inter partes reexamination requests. Adidas AG filed a request against NIKE’s patent on monitoring activity of a user in locomotion on foot. Apple filed a request against MedioStream’s patent on a method and system for direct recording of video information onto a disk medium. Archos filed a request against Creative Technology’s patent on automatic hierarchical categorization of music by metadata. Hewlett-Packard and IBM jointly filed a request against ACQIS’ patent on a computer system and method including console housing multiple computer modules having independent processing units, mass storage devices, and graphics controllers. Life Technologies Corporation filed two requests against Solexa’s patents on a system and apparatus for sequential processing of analytes and a method and compositions for ordering restriction fragments. Q.I. Press Controls and QIPC North America jointly filed a request against Quad/Tech’s patent on a method and apparatus for visually inspecting a substrate on a printing press.

This week the Official Gazette noticed fifteen ex parte reexamination requests. DexCom, Inc. filed a request against TheraSense’s patent on an analyte monitoring device and methods of use. Facebook filed two requests against Tele-Publishing’s patent on a method and apparatus for providing a personal page. PAETEC filed a request against C2 Communications Technologies’ patent on method and apparatus for implementing a computer network/internet telephone system. Advanced Micro Devices filed a request against California Institute of Technology’s patent on an optically intraconnected computer employing dynamically reconfigurable holographic optical element. Anonymous third parties filed requests against patents assigned to Apple, Centurion Medical Products, Fountainhead, FNA IP Holdings, Kornit Digital, Motorola, RLS Group, Selex Communications, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics.