Is It Worth It? How Game Theory Should Guide Patent Prosecution Decisions

• Author: Kate S. Gaudry - Sameer Vadera
• Position: Kate S. Gaudry is a senior patent attorney at the Washington, D.C., office of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. She focuses her analysis on patent prosecution and counseling, with an emphasis on quantitative analysis of patent portfolios and strategic options and on prosecution for the software, computer systems, and quantitative biology...
• Pages: 35-40

Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 11, Number 2, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2018 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.

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November/December 2018 n LANDSLIDE 33

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primary responsibility of prosecutors and patent counsel is to allo-

cate  xed patent budgets and identify low-level strategies. Should

a patent application be  led in an attempt to protect an innova-

tion? Should an amendment or appeal be  led in response to a given

rejection? For how long should prosecution be allowed to continue

before an application is abandoned? Answering these questions

effectively can allow an applicant to secure valuable patent pro-

tection ef ciently, while prudently controlling costs.

By Kate S. Gaudry and

Sameer Vadera

Image: Getty Images