Interference proceeding


An interference proceeding, also known as a priority contest, is an inter partes proceeding to determine the priority issues of multiple patent applications. Until the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011, it was a unique procedure in the patent law of the United States. Unlike in most other countries which had a first-to-file system, the former first-to-invent system of the U.S. allowed a party which has failed to file a patent application on time to challenge the priority of inventorship of another party which had a granted or pending patent, if certain requirements were met.

Definition

An interference proceeding is an administrative proceeding conducted by a panel of administrative patent judges of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to determine which applicant is not entitled to the patent if both claimed the same invention in:
  1. two or more pending patent applications, or
  2. at least one pending patent application and at least one patent issued within a year of the pending application's filing date.
A panel, composed of judges on the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, a quasi-judicial body in the USPTO, hears an interference contest. Its final judgment adjudicating one party as an earlier inventor is called a priority award, or simply an award. Appeals from this tribunal are heard before either the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. See,.

Parties

At least two parties are involved in an interference proceeding: the inventor or applicant who filed an earlier patent application are called the "senior party", and the other inventor or applicant are called the "junior party". Both parties can be referred as "contestants", but that term is currently more likely to be used to describe the junior party.
Presumptions are stated in 37 C.F.R. 41.207:

Leahy-Smith America Invents Act

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act into law. Part of the Act changed the U.S. patent system from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. As such, interference proceedings were eliminated from U.S. patent law. More specifically, any patent application with an effective filing date on or after March 16, 2013, cannot initiate an interference. Derivation proceedings are replacing interference proceedings in the patent statutes, but the dispute surrounding a derivation proceeding is unrelated to that of an interference proceeding.