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ARTICLE · 27 OCTOBER 2015

Federal Circuit Patent Updates - October 2015

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Federal Circuit Patent Updates - October 2015

United StatesIntellectual Property
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In re Morsa (No. 2015-1107, 10/19/15) (Prost, Newman, O'Malley)

October 19, 2015 12:33 PM

Prost, C. J. Affirming Board determination that an anticipatory prior art reference was enabling. The specification of the applicant's own patent "admitted ... that the system as described in the patent 'can be implemented by any programmer of ordinary skill . . . ,' thus allowing him to avoid having to teach the public this very concept. Therefore, by using Mr. Morsa's admissions, the Board simply held him to the statements he made in attempting to procure the patent." "There is a crucial difference between using the patent's specification for filling in gaps in the prior art, and using it to determine the knowledge of a person of ordinary skill in the art. Here, the Board did only the latter." Newman, J., dissented.

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