Opinion ID: 728969
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the application oath

Text: 36 Lisle had argued at trial that the '940 patent was invalid based on 35 U.S.C. § 102(b), which prohibits public use or sale of a patented invention more than one year before the patent application was filed. The jury found that the patent was not invalid. However, in presenting the issue of inequitable conduct Lisle stated that Mr. Hebert was required to tell the PTO that he had used the tool more than one year before the filing date, and that he filed a false oath in averring that he had not. 37 A holding of unenforceability based on the filing of a false oath requires that the oath was false, and made with knowledge of the falsity. See Modine Mfg. Co. v. Allen Group, Inc., 917 F.2d 538, 541, 16 USPQ2d 1622, 1624 (Fed.Cir.1990) (Establishing inequitable conduct for submitting false information ... requires proof by clear and convincing evidence of two facts: that the information was material and that the patentee acted with intent to deceive.), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 918, 111 S.Ct. 2017, 114 L.Ed.2d 103 (1991). Knowledge of falsity is predicate to intent to deceive. 38 The relevant portion of the application oath relates to the public use/on-sale bar of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b), not to any use of an invention by the inventor during its development. At trial the facts concerning Mr. Hebert's development of his tool were generally undisputed: Mr. Hebert hand-made the first model of his tool in 1983. He modified the design, and in August 1984 he had a model built by a machine shop. He further modified the design, and in February 1985 he had another model built by a machine shop. There was a month between the making of this third model and the critical date of March 6, 1985. Mr. Hebert testified that he developed and tested his designs by using the tool whenever a warped exhaust manifold required removal and reinstallation on engines brought into his repair shop, about three or four a year. Although Lisle argued that use of the tool on customers' cars while the design was being developed constituted public use or on-sale events, the jury, in its verdict that the patent was not invalid, rejected this position. This verdict has not been appealed. 39 There was not substantial evidence to support a jury verdict of inequitable conduct based on the filing of a false application oath. See Kingsdown, supra; cf. Allied Colloids Inc. v. American Cyanamid Co., 64 F.3d 1570, 1578, 35 USPQ2d 1840, 1846 (Fed.Cir.1995) (In view of our holding that a public use bar is not supportable on the evidence that was adduced, the failure to tell the examiner about this purported bar can not be deemed material and culpable....)