Full Federal Circuit to rule on inequitable conduct
01 June 2010
A full panel of the Federal Circuit has agreed to re-hear a case regarding the US doctrine of inequitable conduct, answering Chief Judge Paul Michel's plea to IP practitioners last year
by Eileen McDermott, New York
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| Chief Judge Michel and the Federal Circuit |
At the AIPLA Annual Meeting in Washington DC last October, Michel appealed to attendees to help clarify the doctrine of inequitable conduct by bringing cases that raise the subject before the court. "We can't develop issues unless you raise them," said Michel.
In late April, Therasense (now Abbott Laboratories) did just that, when its petition for an en banc rehearing of the court's January ruling in favour of Becton Dickinson and Company and Nova Biomedical was granted by the court.
The district court found one of the patents at issue in the case – US patent number 5,820,551 – unenforceable for inequitable conduct due to a failure to disclose statements made to the EPO, and the Federal...
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