In Toyota Motor Corporation v. American Vehicular Sciences LLC, IPR2013-00419 and IPR2013-00424m Paper 48 (December 12, 2014), the patent owner sought permission from the Board to file a motion to terminate an ex parte reexamination filed by the petitioner, complaining that it gave petitioner as second bite of the apple. Because the reexamination had not yet been declared, and because nothing in the reexamination could possibly affect the outcome of the inter partes review, the Board denied the request.
IT DOES APPEAR FROM THIS DECISION THAT A LATE-FILED REQUEST FOR REEXAMINATION IS ANOTHER BITE AT THE APPLE FOR THE PETITIONER; HOWEVER IT ALSO MAY BE AN ESCAPE HATCH FOR A PATENT OWNER TO GET NEW CLAIMS THAT WOULD NEVER BE AVAILABLE IN A MOTION TO AMEND.