Court Opinion

ID: 9490520
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:45:38.060126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:08.635866
License: Public Domain

PLAGER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result, but dissenting in the outcome.
I concur in the judgment that the decision of the district court should be vacated, and the matter remanded to that court for further proceedings. However, the further proceedings that I would have the court undertake differ dramatically from that of the panel majority. The panel majority applies to the judicial decision process the standards that the statute makes applicable only to the administrative process before the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks. This is a misreading of the plain language of the *1557statute, and is an unwarranted intrusion into the equity powers of the district courts. I respectfully dissent from that reading.
1.
The panel majority assumes that the requirements spelled out in paragraph one of § 256 apply to a judicial proceeding, and therein as I shall demonstrate lies the error. If one makes that assumption, however, the reading the panel gives to the unfortunate phraseology of paragraph one at least has the virtue of literally following the statute. Thus it probably makes as much sense as the alternatives. In parsing this statutory language, it is worth noting that the terms sometimes used to describe what the statute is about, “misjoinder” and “nonjoinder,” are less than precise. These terms themselves do not appear in the statute, but are used, as the panel does here, to describe what it is thought the statute addresses. However, as applied to any given situation, the terms may not accurately reveal the problem. For example, the argument raised by Dr. Stark is that he, not the named “inventors,” should be the one named in the T83 patent. This is neither misjoinder nor nonjoinder, since he does not complain of having been wrongly joined or wrongly not joined. Rather, he wants to be substituted for the named “inventors.” It is useful to bear these factual nuances in mind when considering how the statute is said to apply to a particular case.
2.
Whether the problem is an error in inclusion, exclusion, or substitution in the naming of an inventor, there are two routes a person can use to get the record of inventorship corrected: ministerial administrative correction by the Commissioner, and correction through a judicial proceeding. Section 256 discusses both; it reads:
§ 256 Correction of named inventor
Whenever through error a person is named in an issued patent as the inventor, or through error an inventor is not named in an issued patent and such error arose without any deceptive intention on his part, the Commissioner may, on application of all the parties and assignees, with proof of the facts and such other requirements as may be imposed, issue a certificate correcting such error.
The error of omitting inventors or naming persons who are not inventors shall not invalidate the patent in which such error occurred if it can be corrected as provided in this section. The court before which such matter is called in question may order correction of the patent on notice and hearing of all parties concerned and the Commissioner shall issue a certificate accordingly.
35 U.S.C. § 256 (1994).
Note that the first paragraph of § 256 addresses the authority of the Commissioner to correct errors in the naming of inventors. It provides a summary administrative remedy, on limited terms, that did not previously exist. There is nothing in that first paragraph that states or even suggests any application to courts, or to the bases on which a court may correct an error in inventorship.
The second paragraph of § 256 contains two ideas. In the first sentence, Congress makes clear that when an error in inventor-ship is corrected pursuant to either the first or second paragraphs (“if it can be corrected as provided in this section ”) (emphasis added), the patent is not rendered invalid because of the original error. This was an important addition to the law of patents, and obviously was intended to apply whether the correction be by Commissioner or court.
The second idea in the second paragraph is that when a correction issue is brought before a court, the court may correct the error “on notice and hearing of all parties concerned.” The statute does not specify, and thus leaves to traditional common law concepts of equity jurisprudence, the circumstances and terms on which a court may find correction warranted.
The panel majority assumes, without any support in the statute or in the legislative history, that somehow courts are constrained by the statutory requirements expressed in the first paragraph, a paragraph that expressly deals exclusively with the administrative remedy before the Commissioner. *1558There is no warrant for reading something into the statute that is not there, particularly when the effect of that reading is to constrain the equity powers of the district courts.
The incongruity of that reading becomes even more apparent when it is observed that one of the requirements contained in the first paragraph is that the application for correction that is submitted to the Commissioner must be joined by “all the parties and assignees,” whereas this court has made clear that consent of all parties is not required for a court to order correction under § 256. MCV, Inc. v. King-Seeley Thermos Co., 870 F.2d 1568, 1570, 10 U.S.P.Q.2d 1287, 1289 (Fed.Cir.1989) (“In the event consensus is not attained, however, the second paragraph of section 256 permits redress in federal court.”). The panel majority, to be logically consistent, must either conclude that contested inventorships cannot be heard by either the Commissioner or the courts, regardless of what MCV said, or that it has the power to pick and choose which parts of paragraph one are to apply to a court proceeding. I do not believe it has the latter power, and the former conclusion makes no sense to me.
Furthermore, the panel majority’s attempt to find in the “such matter” phrase of the second paragraph a statutory incorporation of the first paragraph’s requirements is unpersuasive. The referent of the phrase “such matter” in the second paragraph is clearly “[t]he error of omitting inventors or naming persons who are not inventors,” the subject of the second paragraph, and not the constraints on the exercise of administrative discretion by the Commissioner imposed in the first paragraph.
This is a case of first impression in this court. A few other courts previously have made the same unsupported assumption, without any attempt to justify it. See, e.g., Bemis v. Chevron Research Co., 599 F.2d 910, 203 U.S.P.Q. 123 (9th Cir.1979); Dee v. Aukerman, 625 F.Supp. 1427, 228 U.S.P.Q. 600 (S.D.Ohio 1986) (following Bemis). In Bemis, the issue was whether the alleged true inventor could get the court to correct the inventorship stated in the patent by replacing the named inventor, alleged to have acted fraudulently in procuring the patent in his name, with plaintiffs name. The court, in a brief per curiam opinion, held that no correction of inventorship is possible under the statute unless “the acts giving rise to the need for amendment or correction be inadvertent.” Bemis, 599 F.2d at 912, 203 U.S.P.Q. at 124. That is too sweeping a statement, as the panel decision itself demonstrates. Not surprisingly the Bemis court, without further analysis, considered the rule applicable to both Commissioner and courts.
On the other hand, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, after thoroughly examining the issue, including the history of the statute, recognized that the remedy available through the courts is distinct from that available through the administrative process. Iowa State Univ. Research Found., Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp., 444 F.2d 406, 410, 170 U.S.P.Q. 374, 377 (4th Cir.1971) (“But when relief is sought in court, as allowed by the [now second] paragraph [of § 256], notice and an opportunity for all parties to be heard are the only requisites for judicial action that Congress expressly prescribed.”). The Fourth Circuit is clearly correct. The panel majority’s attempt to distinguish Iowa State is hardly persuasive. It consists in its entirety of a one-sentence criticism that the opinion did not address the substantive standards to be applied by district courts in correcting inventorship. Since that was not required to decide the case before them, the Circuit judges are to be commended, rather than castigated. The Fourth Circuit’s decision is directly on point, and is well reasoned. Though it is not controlling precedent, it is a correct reading of the statute and thus it is guidance we would be well advised to follow.
3.
Finally, the panel majority opines on the relationship of correction of inventorship issues to inequitable conduct, and the possible consequences that might flow therefimn. As the panel majority itself seems to recognize, nothing in this interlocutory appeal raises those issues. They are simply not before us, and anything volunteered about them is little more than obiter dicta, and of no legal significance.
*1559CONCLUSION
I would vacate the decision of the district court, and remand the case to the court to grant plaintiff the judicial process to which the law entitles him.