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ARTICLE · 10 JULY 2008

Federal Circuit Vacates Inequitable Conduct Decision

McDermott Will & Emery
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated a trial court’s decision that the inventor had committed inequitable conduct in the prosecution of a patent for failure to disclose the object that inspired his invention—a pucker free garment seam.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Sue Xia
Sue Xia
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated a trial court's decision that the inventor had committed inequitable conduct in the prosecution of a patent for failure to disclose the object that inspired his invention—a pucker free garment seam. TALtech Ltd. v. Esquel Apparel Inc., Case No. 07-1506 (Fed. Cir., May 22, 2008) (per curiam) (non-precedential).

TAL and Esquel are both garment makers based in Hong Kong. Esquel filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District in the state of Washington for declaratory judgment of non-infringement of a TAL patent. The next day, TAL filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging infringement. Both cases were consolidated in the Western District.

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