Sorry Doc, no Patent Term Adjustment under the C-delay Provision!
| March 1, 2021
Steven C. Chudik vs., Andrew Hirshfeld (performing the functions & duties of the under Secretary of Commerce for IP and Director of the US.PTO).
February 8, 2021
Bryson, Hughes, and Taranto (author).
Summary:
i. Background:
Dr. Chudik filed his patent application before the USPTO on September 29, 2006.
After the issuance of a second rejection in 2010 “Dr. Chudik took a step that would turn out to have consequences for the patent term adjustment awarded under 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)” by requesting continued examination rather than “immediately taking an appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.”
Then in 2014, the Examiner again rejected the claims and Dr. Chudik appealed to the Board. As a result, the Examiner reopened prosecution and issued a subsequent office action rejecting the claims as unpatentable on a different ground.
Two more times Dr. Chudik appealed and each time the Examiner reopened prosecution and issued a new rejection.
In December 2017, while a fourth notice of appeal was pending, the Examiner withdrew several rejections; and after some claim amendments, the Examiner issued a Notice of Allowance in 2018. The application issued as a patent on May 15, 2018, eleven and a half years (11.5 yrs) after the patent application was originally filed.
Dr Chudick was given a patent term adjustment of 2,066 days under 35 U.S.C. § 154(b). The PTO rejected Dr. Chudik’s argument that “he was entitled to an additional 655 days, under 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)(1)(C)(iii) (C-delay), for the time his four notice of appeals were pending.
ii. Issues:
Is Dr. Chuick entitled to patent term adjustment under 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)(1)(C)(iii) (C-delay) for the time his four notice of appeals were pending, even though each time prosecution was reopened, and the case never proceeded to the Board?
iii. Holding
No, the CAFC agreed with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in affirming that Dr. Chudick was not entitled to the additional PTA under the C-delay provision. Chudik v. Iancu, No. 1:19-cv-01163 (E.D. Va. March 25, 2020), ECF No. 33.
The C-delay provision covers delays due to “appellate review by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or by a Federal court in a case in which the patent was issued under a decision in the review reversing an adverse determination of patentability.” 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)(1)(C)(iii).
The District Court held and the CAFC affirmed that the provision does not apply here because the Examiner reopened prosecution after each Notice of Appeal and so (1) the Board did not review the patent at issue and thus “the Board’s jurisdiction over the appeal never attached,” and as a consequence “(2) there was no reversal of the rejection by the Board.”
Dr. Chudick “argued that [the] C-delay applies in situations of “appellate review,” which, he urged, refers to the entire process for review by the Board, beginning when a notice of appeal is filed.”
The District Court rejected this argument and the CAFC agreed holding that the statutory language for “appellate review” requires a “decision in the review reversing an adverse determination of patentability.” 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)(1)(C)(iii), and that language is both “reasonably” and “best interpreted” to require an actual “reversal decision made by the Board.” Consequently, the language excludes the “time spent on a path pursuing such a decision when, because of an examiner reopening of prosecution, no such decision is ever issued.”
The CAFC noted that “[W]hen adopting its 2012 regulations, the PTO explained that the limitations on C-delay adjustments… may be offset by an increased availability of B-delay adjustments.” However, for Dr. Chudik a B-delay increase fails to apply because rather than appealing his initial 2010 final rejection, a request for continued examination was filed and so the statutory exclusion was triggered. See 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)(1)(B)(i) (excluding “any time consumed by continued examination of the application requested by the applicant under [35 U.S.C. § 132(b)]”).
The CAFC concluded that “[T]he unavailability of B-delay for nearly two years (655 days) of delay in the PTO illustrates what applicants should understand when deciding whether to request a continued examination rather than take an immediate appeal. The potential benefit of immediate re-engagement with the examiner through such continued examination comes with a potential cost.”
Additional Note:
Congress set forth three broad categories of delay for which a patent may receive a patent term adjustment. See 35 U.S.C. § 154(b)(1)(A)–(C).
First, under § 154(b)(1)(A), a patent owner may seek an adjustment where the PTO fails to meet certain prescribed deadlines for its actions during prosecution.
Second, under § 154(b)(1)(B), adjustment is generally authorized for each day that the patent application’s pendency extends beyond three years (B-delay), subject to certain exclusions, such as for “time consumed by continued examination of the application requested by the applicant under section 132(b).”
Third, under § 154(b)(1)(C), a patent owner may seek an adjustment for “delays due to derivation proceedings, secrecy orders, and appeals,” including “appellate review by the [Board] . . . in a case in which the patent was issued under a decision in the review reversing an adverse determination of patentability” (C-delay).
Take-away:
- Where no new amendments and/or evidence is to be presented, carefully consider the balance between “[T]he potential benefit of immediate re-engagement with the examiner through such continued examination” and the “potential cost” thereof with respect to lost PTA under the B-delay exclusion.
- C-delay provision only applies when “the Board’s jurisdiction over the appeal” attaches and there is a reversal of the Examiner’s rejection.
