In re O'Farrell
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
853 F.2d 894, 7 U.S.P.Q.2d 1673 (1988)
- Written by Eric Miller, JD
Facts
Patrick O’Farrell, Barry Polisky, and David Gelfand (the applicants) sought to patent a method for regulating the translation of heterologous DNA in bacteria. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) examiner rejected the application because two of the three applicants had published a paper on the subject more than a year earlier, making the paper an anticipatory prior-art reference. The PTO board of appeals affirmed. A prior-art reference by other authors was also cited. The applicants appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, arguing that the claimed method, though described, had not yet been applied at the time of the earlier paper’s publication.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rich, J.)
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