In re Kollar
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
286 F.3d 1326, 62 U.S.P.Q.2d 1426 (2002)
- Written by Eric Miller, JD
Facts
John Kollar discovered and reduced to practice a process for manufacturing ethylene glycol. Kollar later assigned a right to commercialize the invention to Celanese Corporation, which entered an agreement with Redox Technologies, Inc. (Redox) to conduct joint research and development with the eventual goal of building a commercial plant. Under the agreement, Celanese received royalty payments from Redox in return for the sharing of technical information, and Celanese had the right to sell the resulting products, for which Redox was entitled to royalty payments. Kollar applied for a patent on the invention, which was rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) examiner on the ground that the Celanese-Redox agreement constituted an offer for sale of embodiments of Kollar’s claimed invention. The examiner reasoned that the patent statute’s on-sale bar had been triggered because the agreement was entered more than a year before Kollar filed his application. The PTO board of appeals affirmed. Kollar appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Lourie, J.)
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