Inequitable conduct case in ND Ill

The outcome in Felt v. Beacon, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154714 (DJ SHARON JOHNSON COLEMAN) :




Based on the foregoing, this Court again finds that Feit fails to meet its burden to show that Nilssen made a materially false misrepresentation to the U.S. Patent Office with the intent to deceive. Feit's motion for summary judgment is denied.



A law review with an interesting title is cited:



Moreover, it appears in the '887 application's "Description of Prior Art" that Nilssen identified the '107 application as the "original-in-part progenitor," filed on August 14, 1980, of the invention described [*16] in the '887 application. Dkt. 7903 at FEIT_012774. "'Progenitor applications' are applications unrelated to any previously filed U.S. patent application." Michael Carley, Deepak Hedge, & Alan Marco, What is the Probability of Receiving a U.S. Patent?, 17 Yale J. L. & Tech 203 (2015). Thus, it seems that Nilssen may have disclaimed any filing date earlier than August 14, 1980, on the face of the '887 application. Accordingly, there is insufficient evidence from which to conclude as the only reasonable inference that Nilssen intended to deceive the U.S. Patent Office by claiming an earlier effective filing date to which the '140 patent was not entitled.