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[MYK]

If a patent is invalidated in court, does the USPTO do anything to notify the public, for example, through a "certificate of correction" at the back of the images on their website, or through a notation in PAIR?  Is there any centralized public location that this can be discovered (i.e., not Lexis/Westlaw, since those require subscriptions)?

[bleedingpen]

If a patent is invalidated in court, does the USPTO do anything to notify the public, for example, through a "certificate of correction" at the back of the images on their website, or through a notation in PAIR?  Is there any centralized public location that this can be discovered (i.e., not Lexis/Westlaw, since those require subscriptions)?

No.  Many end up in reexamination though.

[MYK]

No.  Many end up in reexamination though.

Good point;  much appreciated.  You mean that they go through reexamination as a part of the litigation, perhaps as a result of the defense trying to invalidate it, correct?  But if a court invalidates the patent for other reasons -- say, inequitable conduct, or 102(f), before anyone tries to run it through reexamination, the patent is dead, right?

[bleedingpen]

Many times the patent is invalidated on prior art grounds by a Court and then reexamined in the USPTO. 

If the patent gets struck down for IC issues, it is dead. 

I don't know any way to get around finding out about it without at least logging onto Lexis.  I guess you could search the assignee's court records on PACER to determine if they had been involved in patent litigations, but even that would be only a partial search. 

[MYK]

Damn.  I was afraid of that.  Thanks!

[JimIvey]

That would be really cool, though, to be able to Sheppardize patents.

If you're looking for general statistics, I don't have an easy solution.

However, if you're curious about a specific patent, here's something that might help.

• Search for the patent by number (with commas) in Google Scholar.
• In the first pull-down menu, select "All federal courts."

You'll get a quick list of all legal decisions involving that patent.

You should be able to quickly piece together the legal history of that patent.

Regards.

[horsechute]

"That would be really cool, though, to be able to Sheppardize patents"

You can, at least in the book version, which is more accurate/complete than the electronic one, or so I have been told.

"Google Scholar"

Thanks, Jim. I'll have to check that one out.

About 1 percent of the time or less, the PTO will put a special notice in the file of the patent indicating that it has been invalidated. Why, I don't know; I just know because I would, when I was an examiner, occasionally pull the file of a patent that had gone to the Federal Circuit out of educational curiosity, and there would be one in there. Other than that, there is no way of knowing without a lot of legal research, as far as I know.

[bleedingpen]

About 1 percent of the time or less, the PTO will put a special notice in the file of the patent indicating that it has been invalidated. Why, I don't know; I just know because I would, when I was an examiner, occasionally pull the file of a patent that had gone to the Federal Circuit out of educational curiosity, and there would be one in there. Other than that, there is no way of knowing without a lot of legal research, as far as I know.

Look at 7,578,470 for an example.

[JimIvey]

Look at 7,578,470 for an example.

What am I looking for? 

I don't see any sort of notice at PatFT.

I don't see any sort of notice at Google Patents.

Nothing pops up in Google Scholar for All federal courts.

Were claims of that patent invalidated in court?

Regards.

[bleedingpen]

Look at 7,578,470 for an example.

What am I looking for? 

I don't see any sort of notice at PatFT.

I don't see any sort of notice at Google Patents.

Nothing pops up in Google Scholar for All federal courts.

Were claims of that patent invalidated in court?

Regards.

Sorry.  Was in a hurry when posted.

Look at PAIR.  There should be a document labeled as "Report on the filing or determination of a Court Proceeding involving a patent" or something like that.  Now that won't tell you if the patent was invalidated (and it does not appear to be so in this case), but it will tell you that the patent is in litigation. 

[MYK]

Thanks much, folks!  Bleedingpen, thanks for finding that one -- it looks like the lawsuit just got filed on the 4th.  It's Middle District of North Carolina (I googled where John S. Brubaker was the Clerk of the Court).

HS, thanks for mentioning that the USPTO does do that;  I'd never delved through PAIR enough to see one before.  By "book version", do you mean the old bound books of patents??  Do they even publish those any longer?

Jim, thanks for the note on Google Scholar.  I'll have to try that.  My question was not regarding a specific case, nor statistics, just the process of how to find out -- if it was doable without a subscription to a paid database service.

[khazzah]

Look at PAIR.  There should be a document labeled as "Report on the filing or determination of a Court Proceeding involving a patent" or something like that. 

Apparently, per 35 USC 290, the district court clerks notify the PTO every time a patent suit is filed, decision is rendered or a judgment issued.

I'm pretty sure I've run across the "suit filed" paper in PAIR before. But I don't recall ever seeing the decision/judgment paper before. Perhaps because most patents involved in lawsuits are so old they're not in PAIR?

[bleedingpen]

Look at PAIR.  There should be a document labeled as "Report on the filing or determination of a Court Proceeding involving a patent" or something like that. 

Apparently, per 35 USC 290, the district court clerks notify the PTO every time a patent suit is filed, decision is rendered or a judgment issued.

I'm pretty sure I've run across the "suit filed" paper in PAIR before. But I don't recall ever seeing the decision/judgment paper before. Perhaps because most patents involved in lawsuits are so old they're not in PAIR?

The clerks are supposed to notify the USPTO, but my experience has been that they do not always do so (in fact, I would say as a rule, that they don't).

[TataBox]

Many times the patent is invalidated on prior art grounds by a Court and then reexamined in the USPTO.  

This generally happens concurrently with and is done at the outset of litigation.  It really becomes a race to the CAFC from the PTO and DC.  See Translogic.

[khazzah]

The clerks are supposed to notify the USPTO, but my experience has been that they do not always do so (in fact, I would say as a rule, that they don't).

Thought it was weird that the patent law impose a duty on district court clerks. How are they gonna enforce that.

When I first ran across these lawsuit-has-been-filed papers in PAIR, I assumed that one of the parties (probably the accused infringer) filed the paper.