Patent Examination and Examiner Interviews

WVU College of Law Research Paper No. 2021-001

Florida State Law Review Online (September 2021)

25 Pages Posted: 10 Nov 2020 Last revised: 21 Sep 2021

See all articles by S. Sean Tu

S. Sean Tu

West Virginia University College of Law; Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), Brigham and Women's Hospital; Georgetown University - The O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law

Date Written: November 5, 2020

Abstract

Examiner interviews are one of the most powerful tools to help both inventors and examiners understand and overcome specific issues during prosecution. Direct discussions between an applicant and an examiner can help bridge the gap between misunderstandings of prior art, the invention or statements in the specification. When used correctly, examiner interviews can dramatically decrease the time in prosecution and help applicants quickly reach a final disposition. This study reviews approximately 1.1 million patent applications corresponding to every patent application with an examiner interview between 2007 to June 2020 to determine the effectiveness of examiner interviews. This study establishes that examiner interviews dramatically decrease the number of Office Actions needed to reach a final disposition (allowance or abandonment).

Keywords: patents, patent examiner, patent examination, prior art, examiner interview, patent prosecution, PTO

JEL Classification: K10

Suggested Citation

Tu, Shine (Sean), Patent Examination and Examiner Interviews (November 5, 2020). WVU College of Law Research Paper No. 2021-001, Florida State Law Review Online (September 2021), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3725770 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3725770

Shine (Sean) Tu (Contact Author)

West Virginia University College of Law ( email )

101 Law School Drive
Morgantown, WV West Virginia 26506
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.law.wvu.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/s-sean-tu

Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), Brigham and Women's Hospital ( email )

1620 Tremont St.
Suite 3012
Boston, MA 02120
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.portalresearch.org/sean-tu.html

Georgetown University - The O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law ( email )

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/experts/s-sean-tu/

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