Practices & Industries
Industry Based Solutions
Patent Interferences and Oppositions
Marshall, Gerstein & Borun has a considerable depth of experience in the highly specialized area of United States patent interference proceedings and coordinating patent oppositions with local counsel outside the United States. Our efforts are directed not only to maximizing our clients’ intellectual property position vis-à-vis their competitors, but also toward achieving results that might otherwise be possible only through much more expensive litigation.
When a client’s patent or patent application is brought into an interference, we advise on the appropriate strategy of the parties and analyze the proofs, which may be demonstrating that the interference was improperly declared because each party’s application is directed to a distinct invention or settling the dispute amicably.
Our involvement may begin long before an interference is declared because we have identified competitive patent rights. In this case, our efforts may include provoking an interference between our client’s application and that of the competitor, defining the subject matter of that interference broadly and aggressively challenging the patentability or validity of the competitor’s patent claims.
We achieve successful results because of our familiarity with the complex nuances of the rules and case law governing interferences, as well as our ability to master the technical complexity of our clients’ inventions. Equally important in our interference practice is our understanding that success often results from the ability to evaluate a client’s laboratory notebooks, records and other aspects of the proceeding as early as possible. With preparation and planning, we may seek to redefine the interference count or raise other issues that determine a favorable outcome for our client.
