Although patent examiners are trained to examine patent applications under existing patent laws, it is not unusual for examiners to erroneously reject patent application claims stating that the claims lacked utility and/or were obvious over existing patents or prior publications. Rather than further narrowing the claimed invention in response to these rejections, appealing the rejections is a viable approach in defending the patent. My talk will provide examples of inventions that were successfully defended by appealing to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), where the patent examiners’ decisions were reviewed by three administrative patent judges. Examples of such patent applications include those claiming novel animal feed products, controlled release fertilizers having improved mechanical handling properties, the use of biomass materials such as plant, animal or municipal waste material biomass for ethanol production, and/or the use of lipo-chitooligosaccharide to initiate early flowering and fruiting of a non-leguminous plant.

Appealing from patent examiner's rejections to USPTO's patent, trial and appeal board (PTAB) can improve the chances of obtaining patents on agricultural products

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.