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Supplemental Examinations To Consider, Reconsider, Or Correct Patent-Related Information: A Tangled Web Indeed, Lisa Dolak
College of Law - Faculty Scholarship
A pending legislative proposal would authorize the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to undertake a “supplemental examination” of an issued patent to “consider, reconsider, or correct information believed to be relevant to the patent.” It would further bar the federal courts from holding a patent unenforceable “on the basis of conduct relating to information” considered during supplemental examination.
The obvious intent of the proposal is to constrain the federal courts’ power to entertain inequitable conduct-based challenges. Its emergence is unsurprising, given the mounting dissatisfaction with the courts’ application of the inequitable conduct doctrine. However, because the bill proposes to …
Lawyers Acting Badly, Or Not? Misconduct In Ip Litigation: Recent Examples And The Questions They Raise, Lisa Dolak
Lawyers Acting Badly, Or Not? Misconduct In Ip Litigation: Recent Examples And The Questions They Raise, Lisa Dolak
College of Law - Faculty Scholarship
Misconduct in civil litigation is not a new phenomenon. Nor is it confined to particular types of cases. Because of their characteristic intensity. however, intellectual property cases may be more likely to inspire bad behavior than other types of cases. The associated pressures seem, on occasion, to lead litigants and trial lawyers to succumb to the temptation to step outside the bounds of vigorous advocacy.
Trial and appellate judges in a number of recent IP cases have wrestled with the issue of whether certain litigation tactics crossed the line between advocacy and abuse. For example, trial judges have recently rebuked …