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IP News

BY Jeffrey S. Ginsberg
March 29, 2012

Broadening Reissue Patent Application Entitled to Benefit of Filing Date of Earlier Application

On March 5, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in In re Staats, Docket No. 2010-1443, reversing the USPTO decision rejecting claims of a broadening reissue application as being untimely filed pursuant to 35 U.S.C. ' 251. While ' 251 imposes a two-year time limit on filing for a broadening reissue patent, the court determined that it will look back to the earliest filed broadening reissue application filing date and not the filing date of the subject application.

Staats was issued a patent pertaining to management of isochronous data transfer, such as transfer of real-time video data. As originally issued, the patent disclosed two embodiments, but the claims were directed solely to the first embodiment. Within the two-year window after issuance, Staats filed a first broadening reissue application relating to the first embodiment. During pendency of the first broadening reissue application, Staats filed a second broadening reissue application as a continuation from the first broadening reissue application that again related to the first embodiment. While the second broadening reissue application was pending, Staats filed a third broadening reissue application as a continuation of the second application. However, claims in this application were directed to the second embodiment.

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