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[gina]

Hollo everyone:
I have two questions here.
First, can we still sumit an reexammination for a patent even if this patent had been expired?
Second, take US 6,000,000 B1 as an example, what is meaning of the "B1". Further, what is the meaning of the A1 or A2 and B1 or B2??
Thank you if anyone can answer my questions!

Regards,
Gina

[JimIvey]

First, can we still sumit an reexammination for a patent even if this patent had been expired?

No.  Of course, you can submit the request for reexamination, and the PTO would be tempted to grant it just for the fees, but what would you accomplish?  The claims have no effect and can have no effect, so what would you be asking the PTO to do?

I don't have the rule in front if me, but I suspect reexam is limited to claims in force -- i.e., issued and non-expired claims.

The claims might have some effect to the extent that infringement might have happened prior to expiration and the statute of limitations has not yet run.  However, I don't think reexam is available to a defendant in that situation.  I think you'd have to go through the courts for invalidity.

Second, take US 6,000,000 B1 as an example, what is meaning of the "B1". Further, what is the meaning of the A1 or A2 and B1 or B2??

Those are publication codes.  They are appended to the patent number to generate unique identifiers for each publication of the patent.  I don't know what the specific individual codes mean.  The patent number in your example would be 6,000,000.  The publication number would be 6,000,000 B1.  Somebody else here might actually know what each one means.  I suspect the A series is for a category of publication (e.g., pre-issuance) and the B series of for another category (e.g., post-issuance), while the numerals are simply sequence numbers -- 1 is the first of the series, 2 is the second, and so on.

I hope that helps.

[M. Arthur Auslander]

Dear Gina,

If there is a an aspect of the invention that has not been covered properly, it is not impossible that a new application may cover what you are concerned about.

[gina]

Thanks for your reply!
But, I want to describe my question more clearly.
If the assignee of patebt A file a lawsuit on 2003/6/1 and then the patent A was expired on 2003/12/31, so consider about the past damage of the lawsuit, can we still file an reexamination for patent A?
Thank you!

Gina  

[eric stasik]

dear gina,

rule number one in the US is that there is no better use of prior art than in front of the judge and jury.

do not confuse US re-examination with a european style opposition or invalidation procedure. it is not. it is not even a distant cousin.

(the US FTC in a recent study said as much when they proposed that the US congress establish a proper extra judicial opposition - invalidation instance.)

despite the appeal of re-examination, the ex parte nature of the US re-examination procedure remains very patentee friendly. it is possible (and maybe even likely) that the patent holder might even have stronger position after re-examination than before.

the only reason i would ever recommend to someone to use the re-examination procedure is against their own patent to strengthen it prior to litigation.

using your prior art to launch a re-exam against an an opponent when there is already a litigation in process is, in my opinion, the same thing as throwing it away.

keep your powder dry.

regards,

eric stasik