Law Commons^™

Obviousness-Type Double Patenting: Why It Exists And When It Applies, Daniel Kazhdan

Akron Law Review

At least since 1819, courts have prohibited double patenting—where an inventor has two patents on the same or obvious variations of the same invention. There have always been two basic justifications for prohibiting double patenting. The first focused on the patentee: bad actors might try to improperly extend their patent monopoly by filing serial applications. The second focused on the public’s rights: the bargain of the patent is that in exchange for the inventor getting a term-limited patent, the public is entitled to use the claimed invention (and its obvious variations) once the patent expires. This public-rights rationale is broader, …