Intellectual Property Law

Developments up to second-filed application relevant to show no double patenting

By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C.

The Federal Circuit has clarified the relevant timeframe for purposes of determining whether two claimed inventions are patenably distinct or would result in impermissible double patenting.  The court held "the relevant time frame for determining whether a product and process are 'patentably distinct' should be at the filing date of the secondary application."

Here, the product application was filed over a decade before the process application.  The district court originally granted summary judgment of no double patenting based on evidence of developments that came after both applications were filed.  It was unclear whether any of the alternative methods were available before the second application was filed, so the court remanded the case for resolution of that issue.

More detail of Takeda Pharm. Co. v. Doll after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on February 17, 2010 (boomark / email).