In re Costello
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
717 F.2d 1346, 219 U.S.Q.P. 389 (1983)
- Written by Eric Miller, JD
Facts
In 1971, an application for a patent on a form of cable insulation was filed by Derek Costello and Robert McClean (the applicants). In 1972, the patent application was deemed abandoned by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) due to inactivity. On January 4, 1973, Cereijo and others filed a patent application that disclosed but did not claim the same invention that the abandoned application had attempted to claim. The applicants filed a second application on March 9, 1973. The second application was substantially similar to the abandoned application but did not reference it. The Cereijo patent was issued on October 21, 1975. The PTO used the Cereijo patent as a prior-art reference to reject the applicants’ second application. The applicants appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Smith, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
