New USPTO Post-Grant Review a Small Step for Patent Harmonisation

This article discusses the new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) post-grant review proceeding, which was recently implemented in the America Invents Act (AIA). The article compares USPTO post-grant review to existing patent opposition proceedings at the European Patent Office (EPO). “Procedurally, they are very different,” said Anthony C. Tridico, Ph.D., managing partner of Finnegan’s European office in Brussels Belgium, “and these differences are very important.”