Opinion ID: 449779
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: 37 C.F.R. Secs. 1.530(a) and 1.26(c) and MPEP Secs. 2240 and 2244

Text: 75 Gould challenges the lawfulness of 37 C.F.R. Sec. 1.530(a), which provides that no statement by a patentee shall be considered by the PTO during the three-month period set in 35 U.S.C. Sec. 303 wherein the PTO is required to decide whether any substantial new question of patentability is raised. This objection is presented in the context of the PTO's rule of doubt expressed in MPEP Secs. 2240 and 2244. 12 Gould argues that the procedure is flagrantly unfair, since the PTO must rely solely on the representations of the person who requests reexamination without opportunity for any explanation by the patentee. The statute does not prohibit such explanation, but 35 C.F.R. Sec. 1.530(a) does. Gould asserts that the deprivation of the opportunity to be heard at this threshold stage violates due process. 76 Gould also protests 37 C.F.R. Sec. 1.26(c), arguing that the $1,500 fee for reexamination unlawfully weights the PTO's initial decision in favor of granting reexamination, because only if reexamination is granted will the PTO avoid refunding $1,200 of the $1,500. 77 Gould conceded before the district court, for the purpose of this case, that a substantial new question of patentability had been raised in the requests for reexamination of the two patents here at issue. Thus the challenged procedures of 37 C.F.R. Secs. 1.530(a) and 1.26(c), and MPEP Secs. 2240 and 2244, did not apply to Gould's detriment. In the absence of justiciable controversy with respect to these provisions, Gould does not have standing to challenge them. Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975); Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 703, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962).