The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruled today in a precedential decision that a “first-filed, first-issued, later-expiring claim cannot be invalidated by a later-filed, later-issued, earlier-expiring reference claim having a common priority date” under the judicially-created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting (ODP). In so ruling, the CAFC distinguished In re Cellect, explaining that Cellect answered a different question than one at issue here, “namely, under what circumstances can a claim properly serve as an ODP reference”? Judge Lourie, who also authored the Cellect opinion, wrote for the court, with Judge Dyk partially dissenting.

Full Article Available Here