You are here: Ed9 07.2015 Guidebook » Hot Topics
Interference:
|
Interference proceedings are replaced by derivation proceedings for applications subject to the first-inventor-to-file provisions.
Interference basics:
- These are proceedings held before the board.
- These proceedings determine who will receive priority of the invention in question.
- May occur between a pending application and one or more pending applications, a pending application and one or more unexpired patents.
Priority contests (also known as interferences):
- The PTO does not always award priority to the first filed application, sometimes, an interference will be held to determine who should receive the patent.
- Do not require a showing of diligence during the time period one inventor conceived of the idea and the other inventor actually reduced it to practice.
- Reissue applications are not precluded from being involved in an interference.
Interferences between applications and patents may arise:
- If an application contains one or more allowable claims which are drawn to the same invention as those claimed in an issued patent.
- When a patent has an effective U.S. filing date later than the effective filing date of an application which claims the same invention and is disclosed by the applicant.
- An applicant may provoke an interference with a patent by presenting a proposed count and presenting a claim already in the application that corresponds to the proposed count.
