I honestly don't understand why people keep suggesting that VALID requests for re-exam will just keep coming. There must come a point where all VALID possibilities are exhausted. This latest request is a great example. Nothing new, really, but (per my understanding) a re-mix of prior requests/art. And, IMO, had this latest re-exam request come AFTER the issuance of the re-exam certificate from the prior exam, it probably would have been rejected.
I have a difficult time believing:
- that there is more out there that has not yet been discovered in the way of prior art.
- that those making the requests are "holding something back" in anticipation of making a follow-on request. This because they could have included the suspect prior art in one of the prior requests and perhaps improved their chances of successfully defeating the patent. To buy more time? If they had included the info in a prior request, would that not have exhausted an (nearly) equivalent amount of time in the re-exam process?
Granted, the patent has now been amended. But those amendments (and notations by the examiner for inclusion in the history file) are designed specifically to not only defeat current claims of obviousness, but also possible future claims, IMO.
IMO, we're very near the end of the '336 re-exam saga.
I'm not necessarily trying to demean your thoughts on this, in that I suspect you are correct that more re-exam requests may be forthcoming. I'm only suggesting that they will be found to be without merit and rejected.
JMHOs,
SGE