Statute Intended To Close Deepsouth Loophole Given Broad Interpretation

Promega Corp. v. Life Techs. Corp.

Addressing the requirements of infringement based on extraterritorial combinations of components, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a lower court's ruling of no infringement, finding that for a patent owner to prevail on a cause of action for active inducement, it is not necessary that a third party supply more than one component to the combination found to infringe under 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(1), even though the statute requires an infringer to "actively induce the combination" of the components of a patented invention.  The Court also found the claims of a second set of patents to be invalid for lack of enablement.  Promega Corp. v. Life Techs. Corp., Case Nos. 13-1011; -1029; -1376 (Fed. Cir., Dec. 15, 2014) (Chen, J.) (Prost, C.J., dissenting-in-part).