Appeals to the PTAB
If prosecution before the Patent Office does not secure an allowance, the Examiner's rejections may be appealed to the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) within the Patent Office. In the appeals process, the Applicant submits a written Appeal Brief setting forth the errors in the rejections, to which the Examiner responds in an Examiner's Answer. The Applicant optionally may file a Reply Brief to the Examiner's Answer, and further optionally may request an oral hearing before a panel of the PTAB.
Our attorneys have extensive experience in prosecuting appeals before the PTAB. Appeals are uniquely complex proceedings, and assessing which cases may be more favorable for appeal (as opposed to other strategies such as continued examination) is a significant determination that our attorneys will help you to make at the outset. Once in the appeals process, we have been successful in obtaining reversal of rejections across varied technological disciplines. And our persuasive writing, coupled with sound arguments, has often resulted in the Examiner withdrawing the rejections following submission of our appeal brief, before the appeal ever reaches the PTAB for a decision.