This Federal Circuit Opinion analyzed collateral estoppel and
the extent to which the non-provisional document would benefit from
the provisional application's priority date, as it relates to
Pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(e).
Background
U.S. Patent Application No. 11/005,678 ("'678
application"), filed on December 7, 2004 that claims priority
to a provisional application filed on July 28, 2000, is directed to
logistic systems and methods for transportation of goods that
connect and share customer order information between various
shippers across different transportation modes. The Examiner
rejected the '678 application under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. §
102(e) and 35 U.S.C. § 103. Specifically, claims 1, 2, 8,
10-13, and 24-25 were rejected as anticipated under pre-AIA 35
U.S.C. § 102(e) by U.S. Patent Application Publication No.
2002/0049622 A1 ("Lettich"), which was filed April 26,
2001 and published on April 25, 2002 , and claims 3, 5-7, 9, 15-20,
and 22 were rejected as