Source: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/goodlatte-proposes-an-obviousness-type-d-42470/
Timestamp: 2014-11-28 19:43:40
Document Index: 59174928

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 106', '§ 102', '§ 106', '§ 103', '§ 106', '§ 103', '§ 106']

Goodlatte Proposes an Obviousness Type Double Patenting Statute | Foley & Lardner LLP - JDSupra
Andrew S. Baluch, Courtenay C. Brinckerhoff | Foley & Lardner LLP
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Interestingly, section 9(d)(4) of the Innovation Act would provide that a patent that is subject to § 106 could not be held invalid “on any nonstatutory, double-patenting ground,” while section 9(d)(5) would limit its applicability to situations where “both the first and second patents… are patents or patent applications that are described in section 3(n)(1) of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act,” e.g., where both the first and second patents are subject to the first-inventor-to-file version of § 102.
Significantly, § 106 might make obviousness-type double patenting a new basis for requesting inter partes review. By statute, inter partes review only can be based on any “ground that could be raised under section 102 or 103 and only on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or printed publications.” Because the existing judicially-created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting does not invoke § 103, obviousness-type double patenting currently cannot be the basis of inter partes review. However, § 106 as proposed in the Goodlatte Innovation Act might change this because the proposed statute would provide that the “first” patent ”shall be considered prior art… for the purpose of determining the nonobviousness of the claimed invention of the second patent under section 103.” That is, by treating the “first” patent as “prior art” and expressly invoking § 103, proposed § 106 could make obviousness-type double patent a new basis for inter partes review.
Topics: First-to-File, First-to-Invent, Innovation Act, Obviousness, Patent Reform, Patents, Prior Art