By Jason Rantanen
As seen in the recent Powell v. Home Depot case that Professor Crouch wrote about last week, the net effect of a weakened inequitable conduct doctrine post-Therasense is an increase in the ability of applicants to engage in troubling behavior during patent prosecution. My colleague Lee Petherbridge and I expressed this concern shortly after Therasense issued, particularly warning about its consequences for patent prosecutors who are arguably worse-off post-Therasense, caught between clients who may be more interested in playing fast and loose with the rules and their own ethical and legal responsibilities.
Therasense was not the only significant development in the area of inequitable conduct this year, however. The creation of a mechanism for supplemental examination in the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act further alters the landscape of inequitable conduct, and not necessarily in a positive way. In a short essay recently published in Michigan Law Review First Impressions, Professor Petherbridge and I examine the supplemental examination mechanism created by the AIA and conclude that it may jeopardize American innovation, job creation, and economic competitiveness.
A copy of the piece is available via SSRN.
