Troy v. Samson Mfg. Corp.

The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences declared an interference between Troy’s 451 patent, which claims priority to a provisional application filed in February 2005, and Samson’s 665 patent application, claiming priority to a provisional application filed in January 2005. Samson was named senior party. Troy’s priority motion alleged reduction to practice in early February 2004, conception prior to February 2004, inurement, and derivation. Samson’s motion alleged reduction to practice in late February or early March 2004 and conception in early February 2004. The Board concluded that Troy failed to prove actual reduction to practice in February 2004 and ordered all claims of the 451 patent cancelled. Troy had proffered new evidence of prior conception at the dates asserted, new evidence of actual reduction to practice in February 2004, and a claim that Samson engaged in “inequitable conduct” by including in its provisional application confidential drawings misappropriated from Troy. The district court affirmed, refusing to consider new evidence, not raised before the Board. The court acknowledged that Troy had proven, in state court, that Samson improperly submitted as its own at least one drawing of Troy’s and that Samson violated a confidentiality agreement in developing its inventions, but concluded that neither proved that Troy conceived all the elements and timely reduced them to practice. The Federal Circuit vacated. View "Troy v. Samson Mfg. Corp." on Justia Law