Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. Lee
Addressing the issue of whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office (PTO) properly calculated the Patent Term Adjustment (PTA)
based on an applicant's filing of a supplemental information
disclosure statement (IDS), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's summary judgment in
favor of the PTO, finding that any delays in prosecution caused by
an applicant, irrespective of whether the applicant's conduct
actually results in a delay in prosecution, will result in a
reduction of the PTA. Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. Lee,
Case No. 14-1159 (Fed. Cir, Feb. 26, 2015) (Wallach, J.).
In 1994, Congress changed the method of calculating a patent
term to 20 years after the application is filed. Since the
patent term is no longer based on the date of issuance, Congress
enacted provisions under which an applicant can seek a PTA in order
to account for delays caused by the PTO between the filing and
issuance dates.
