On Friday, August 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Hyatt v. Stewart affirming the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s ruling on remand that inventor Gil Hyatt’s efforts to obtain patent rights from four patent applications filed in 1995 were barred by prosecution laches. Ruling that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s affirmative defense was available in Hyatt’s civil action to obtain patent rights under 35 U.S.C. § 145 under the law of the case, the Federal Circuit also rejected arguments that federal jurisdiction under Section 145 extended to the entirety of the Board’s decision, including parts of those rulings in which the Board reversed examiner rejections.

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