In Mohsenzadeh v. Lee, the Federal
Circuit affirmed the district court's decision that the
USPTO's delay in issuing a Restriction Requirement in a parent
application does not earn Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) for the
ensuing divisional applications. Thus, while Mr. Mohsenzadeh's
parent application earned 1,476 days of "A Delay" for
a late Restriction Requirement, his divisional applications
did not.
The USPTO Delay At Issue
The patents at issue are U.S. Patent 8,352,362 and U.S. Patent 8,401,963, directed
to methods of transferring resources from one entity to
another, and related methods. These two patents stemmed from
divisional applications of U.S. Patent 7,742,984.
I first wrote
about this case shortly after the complaint was filed, and
then when the
district court decision was issued. As I explained in those
articles, the patent application that issued as the parent
'984 patent (the "parent application") was filed July
6, 2001 and issued June 22, 2010.
