Source: http://wenderoth.com/news/federal-circuit-upholds-usptos-longstanding-policy-on-same-day-continuation-practice
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 07:57:49+00:00

Document:
Federal Circuit Upholds USPTO’s Longstanding Policy on Same Day Continuation Practice | Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
On June 21, 2016, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) reversed the district court’s decision in Immersion Corporation v. HTC Corporation (2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20577 (D. Del. 2015)) and upheld the USPTO’s longstanding policy that a continuation application filed on the same day that the parent application issues is entitled to the filing date of the parent application.
An application for patent for an invention… disclosed… in an application previously filed in the United States… which names an inventor or joint inventor in the previously filed application shall have the same effect, as to such invention, as though filed on the date of the prior application, if filed before the patenting or abandonment of or termination of proceedings on the first application.
35 U.S.C. § 120, emphasis added.
Immersion Corporation filed U.S. Patent Application No. 10/213,940 on the same day that its parent application issued (U.S. Patent No. 6,429,846), claiming benefit of the filing date of the parent application under § 120. HTC Corporation contended that the ‘940 application was not entitled to the filing date of the ‘846 patent’s application under § 120, because the ‘940 application was not filed on the day before the issuance of the ‘846 patent. The district court agreed with HTC Corporation, holding that a continuation application filed on the day that the parent application issues is not filed “before the patenting” of the first application as required by § 120.

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