Court Opinion

ID: 9471610
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:36:55.706091+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:29.774108
License: Public Domain

NIES, Circuit Judge,
concurring-in-part.
I concur in the decision that the ’508 patent is not invalid for double patenting. However, I do not share the doubts that principles of double patenting should apply to design/utility patent situations. I also do not share the view that the Third Circuit standard which limited double patenting to “same invention” type is reconcilable with the decisions of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, e.g. In re Thoringtoh, 418 F.2d 528, 537, 57 CCPA 759, 768, 163 USPQ 644, 650 (1969).
More significantly, I do not agree that in obviousness type double patenting each patent must be found obvious from the other. If one patent is obvious from the other and has the effect of extending its term, the second to issue is invalid. In this case I agree with the majority that it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with knowledge of the ’068 design patent to make the claims of the ’508 patent. Thus, the patentee has not obtained extended protection for the device claimed. Alternatively, since a device covered by the claims of the ’508 patent need not take the shape claimed in the design patent, the term of the design patent is not being improperly extended by the utility patent.
Since I discern no possible extension of the term of protection of the invention of either patent, I agree that the ’508 patent is not invalid for double patenting.