A Corporate Counsel Guide to Post-Grant Proceedings at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO)

In this ACC Guide, an overview of recent developments in post-grant proceedings before the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board are explained.  With relatively new administrative proceedings developed for challenging competitor grants, in-house counsel will need to familiarize themselves with this knowledge to prepare for hearings.

Among some of the topics covered are inter partes review (IPR), post-grant review (PGR), statistics of hearing outcomes, claim construction, amendment practice, discovery and evidentiary issues, oral hearings and strategies arising from co-pending litigation.  At the end of the Guide, the authors provide specific considerations and practical takeaways as well as a comprehensive glossary of terms defined throughout the paper.