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ARTICLE · 16 NOVEMBER 2012

Reversing USPTO Appellate Board Ruling: Not An Easy Task

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In In re Droge, the federal circuit upheld the decision of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Courtenay Brinckerhoff
Courtenay Brinckerhoff
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In In re Droge, the federal circuit upheld the decision of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences that found that claims directed to recombinant biotechnology methods were obvious. At eight pages, the decision is one of the shortest precedential opinions that I've read, and illustrates the difficulty of overturning a board decision of obviousness.

The Patent Application at Issue

The patent application at issue was published as US 2003/0027337. Claim 29 was deemed to be representative, and is set forth below as presented in the Federal Circuit decision:

29. A method of sequence specific recombination of DNA in a eukaryotic cell, comprising:

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