United States patent law Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited ...

since the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), a derivation proceeding is a

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...

proceeding under conducted at the

Patent Trial and Appeal Board The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is an administrative law body of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which decides issues of patentability. It was formed on September 16, 2012, as one part of the America Invents Act. P ...

to determine whether (i) an inventor named in an earlier

patent application A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claims stated in a formal document, including necessary official forms and re ...

derived the claimed invention from an inventor named in the petitioner's application, and (ii) the earlier application claiming such invention was filed without authorization. Derivation proceedings are only applicable to applications for patent, and any patent issuing thereon, that are subject to the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA.MPEP § 2310
/ref> This is in contrast to an

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. It is a proceeding unique to the patent law of the United States. Unlike in most other cou ...

under pre-AIA law, which determined the priority of invention.MPEP § 2301
/ref> An applicant subject to the first-inventor-to-file provisions may file a

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...

to institute a derivation proceeding with the Board. During the derivation proceeding, the Board has

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

over any involved patent or application, and the

patent examiner A patent examiner (or, historically, a patent clerk) is an employee, usually a civil servant with a scientific or engineering background, working at a patent office. Major employers of patent examiners are the European Patent Office (EPO), the Un ...

may not act thereon except as the Board may authorize.MPEP § 2313
/ref>

References

Attribution: * {{USGovernment United States patent law