Federal Court Upholds Commissioner's Refusal To Correct Patent Priority Date As Untimely

In April 3^rd, 2013, Bayer Cropscience filed a US patent application. The USPTO refused to award this application an April 3, 2013 filing date because the application did not include figures, a decision that Bayer Cropscience did not initially contest. In March, 2013, Bayer Cropscience later filed a PCT application (published here) claiming priority the earlier US application but also sought to resurrect the earlier April 3, 2013 filing date of the US priority application. WIPO, noticing a discrepancy in the filing dates of the US application, refused the patentees request to accord the PCT application an earlier filing date.

Bayer then requested that the USPTO correct the filing date of the US application, which the USPTO did on April 14, 2015, conceding that it should never have delayed the filing date to April 19, 2013, the date Bayer Cropscience provided figures for the US application. Having successfully obtained an earlier filing date with the USPTO, Bayer again