I suggest you read the Choate report ( Link in Rick Goerners letter June 16th) as 39% of the reexamination requests are made by the patent owner to test and argue ex parte on validity and come out with a stronger patent in the end. This in my view would be a great move on TPL's part if they are in fact the ones that brought the prior art to the attention of the USPTO. Where would you rather argue validation? ex parte with the USPTO or in court with an attourney and expert witnesses from the other side? Like it or not the best thing to do is get it done now with the PTO it's our best chance and overwhelmingly in our favor with 90 % odds of revalidating. Unfortunately without storming the USPTO and holding a gun to the examiners head we are stuck waiting for the process to finish. As Emtnester suggested about the only thing we can do is write the USPTO and our representatives to plead for change.
All the best,
Steve