Opinion ID: 774976
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Events Related to Inequitable Conduct Allegation

Text: 25 A competing inventor named Bonzel, who assigned all of his inventions relevant to the present dispute to Schneider AG (Schneider), conceived of an invention in mid-1983 that is similar to that described in the '233 patent. Summary Judgment Opinion, slip op. at 13. Bonzel filed a patent application in Germany on November 23, 1984. Id. As is customary in Germany, this application presumably was published eighteen months later, on May 23, 1986. On November 15, 1985, Bonzel filed an application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), thereby preserving his right to claim priority internationally as of November 23, 1984. Id. The PCT application was published on June 5, 1986. Bonzel filed a related United States patent application on July 14, 1986, which issued as United States Patent No. 4,762,129 ('129 patent) on August 9, 1988. Id. 26 Yock conceived his invention in early 1985, disclosed it to ACS on January 9, 1986, and filed a United States application on April 15, 1986. Id. According to Yock, five days later he learned of the Bonzel design from an ACS employee who forwarded a report to him of a presentation given by Bonzel in Switzerland in March 1986 (presentation report). Id. The Yock application eventually gave rise to the '548, '273, and '233 patents. 27 Schneider and ACS became embroiled in numerous disputes, two of which are noted here. After the '129 patent issued, Schneider sued ACS in 1988 for infringement of the '129 patent. Id. ACS responded, in part, by filing a notice of opposition with the European Patent Office in February 1990. Id. at 14. Schneider also sued in the United Kingdom, presumably on a United Kingdom patent stemming from the PCT application. See id. at 19. On March 16, 1990, ACS responded, in part, by filing a request for reexamination of Bonzel's '129 patent with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (PTO). Id. According to the district court, Yock repeatedly stressed that the Bonzel patents did not disclose and were not limited to a shortened guidewire lumen that also remained within the guiding catheter. Id. at 13-17, 19. Yock also argued that the Bonzel patents were not patentable over a prior art reference of Nordenstrom. 28 On May 3, 1991, the infringement action filed by Schneider against ACS and its distributors in the United Kingdom was decided against ACS. Id. at 15. In December of 1991, ACS and Schneider entered into a settlement agreement to resolve litigation pending in the United States and Europe between ACS and Schneider alleging infringement of the Bonzel and Yock patents. Id. at 16-17. ACS paid Schneider $22 million for a license under the Bonzel patent, and both parties relinquished all right to continue pursuing claims of infringement against each other with respect to the Yock and Bonzel patents. Id. at 17. 29 In the meantime, Bonzel had filed a continuation of the '129 patent and added claims that largely copied claims from Yock's '273 patent. These added claims, however, each omitted a substantive limitation requiring that the guidewire lumen be at least approximately 10 cm in length. On January 7, 1993, over a year after the settlement and after these copied claims were rejected by the examiner over prior art, Bonzel cancelled the claims. 30 On March 9, 1994, Yock filed the application that became the '233 patent. Id. During prosecution, the examiner had the Bonzel presentation report before him. Id. at 23. Yock again distinguished his design from that of Bonzel. He also swore behind the Bonzel presentation report.