Reissue Basics

Reissue applications are valuable tools for correcting defects in issued patents. Reissue applications are used to correct a wide variety of errors that are more substantive than those which may be corrected by simply requesting a Certificate of Correction. A patentee surrenders their patent, pays a fee, and then reissues the invention disclosed in the original patent with the defects corrected for the unexpired part of the term of the original patent.

As explained the M.P.E.P., the error upon which a reissue is based must be one which causes the patent to be "deemed wholly or partly inoperative or invalid, by reason of a defective specification or drawing, or by reason of the patentee claiming more or less than he had a right to claim in the patent." M.P.E.P. § 1401. Applicants considering reissue applications, however, are often uncertain as to what constitutes a proper "error" for filing a reissue application.

The most common bases for filing a reissue application are:

the claims are too narrow or broad; the disclosure contains inaccuracies; applicant failed to or incorrectly claimed foreign priority; and/or applicant failed to make reference to or incorrectly made reference to prior copending applications. See M.P.E.P. § 1402 here.

Those errors may result from a wide variety of sources, including inadvertently obtaining a patent that does not cover all of the disclosed...