Court Opinion

ID: 9446988
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:22:59.931243+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:51.808482
License: Public Domain

BURGER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Under the holding of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in In re Allen, 1940, 115 F.2d 936, 28 CCPA 792, the Commissioner of Patents has no jurisdiction to issue a patent to a winning party in an interference proceeding during the pendency of the loser’s appeal to the CCPA. It is not a matter of discretion, and so the Commissioner conceded in the District Court, although he argues to the contrary here.
For purposes of the Commissioner’s interim jurisdiction I can see no difference between an appeal to the CCPA under 35 U.S.C. § 141 and a suit for review in a District Court under 35 U.S.C. § 146. Before In re Allen but subsequently to Whipple v. Miner, C.C.D.Mass.1883, 15 F. 117 (relied on here by the Commissioner), the Act of 1927 had amended Rev.Stat. § 4915 (1875) so that an appeal to the CCPA or a bill in equity in the District Court were mutually exclusive remedies with identical time limitations. 44 Stat. 1336 (1927). These are provisions analagous in every material respect to present 35 U.S.C. §§ 141 and 146. Thus, although there have historically been differences between these two methods for reviewing a decision in an interference proceeding, the two routes are now procedurally the same and should therefore have the same effect upon the jurisdiction of the Commissioner.
The statute which the Commissioner contends compels him to issue the patent without delay, 35 U.S.C. § 135, had an exact counterpart in force when the CCPA decided In re Allen. Rev.Stat. § 4904, as amended, 53 Stat. 1212 (1939). This statute clearly makes no distinction between the two routes for review, nor does reason suggest why any such distinction should be made.
I would therefore hold that the Commissioner of Patents does not have jurisdiction to issue a patent until after the termination of proceedings brought under 35 U.S.C. § 146.