granted, others will be prevented from using the same method, but would not be prevented from making the same end product by a different method. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is responsible for examining and issuing patents to eligible inventors. And while the Patent Office does have certain types of processes to reconsider the validity of the patent, for most practical purposes the role of the Patent Office ceases upon issuance of the patent. The Patent Office does not monitor commercial transactions for the presence of potential infringement, nor does it enforce patent rights against potential infringers once their presence is made known. It is the duty of the owners of the patent to protect their patent rights at their own expense. Moreover, the Patent Office does not guarantee the validity of a patent. A patent may be found by a court to be invalid and hence unenforceable at any time during its lifetime. The Patent and Trademark Office additionally has processes that reconsider the validity of a patent. Two of these procedures were implemented by the America Invents Act. The first is Inter Partes Review, often referred to as IPR, which offers a petitioner the ability to challenge the validity of another’s patents before a group of administrative judges on the Patent Trial and Appeals Board. This procedure is akin to an expedited mini-trial, limited to issues associated with the validity of the patents in question based on prior art patents and printed publications. Furthermore, the IPR procedure has limited discovery and strict time deadlines. IPRs can be filed at any time, and often are requested by a party to a traditional lawsuit to adjudicate the validity of the patents in an expedited, and likely less expensive forum than a traditional trial. Since the passage of the America Invents Act, IPRs have become an increasingly popular avenue in patent disputes.
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