Intellectual Property Law

Another District Court Gets Impatient With PTO Delays

By Peter Zura

Field Logic Archery, LLC v. G5 Outdoors, LLC, No. 06-1724 (D. Min., April 20, 2009)

From Magistrate Judge Noel's report and recommendation:

The above referenced case was filed on May 9, 2006. After it had been pending for over a year, the parties stipulated to a stay pending the resolution of a "Reissue Application," that had been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in June of 2007. It now appears that the USPTO did nothing with the Reissue Application for nearly a year and half. It did not substantively address the application in any way until October, 2008. Following a case management conference, the parties filed a "Joint Statement Regarding Status of Case" on April 8, 2009, one month shy of three years since the case was filed. In that status report the parties state that the USPTO has notified the parties that it intends to review the Plaintiff's responses to the USPTO's office action within the next sixty days. After that, the parties report, Plaintiff should know the likely time-line for completing the review of the reissue application.

As the case has been pending for nearly three years in this Court, and as there is no clear end in sight for the administrative process begun in the USPTO nearly two years ago, it is recommended that the instant case be dismissed without prejudice while the parties complete their administrative proceedings before the USPTO. If at the end of that process there are still issues to litigate, Plaintiff is free to file the lawsuit anew.

Read the report here (link)

Full post as published by Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).