United States Federal Circuit

Where an inventor with a pending patent application is involved in an active priority dispute with another inventor, he must disclose his knowledge of the competing invention to the PTO if he does not know whether it is prior art. If he is found to have withheld this information with intent to deceive the PTO, his patent may be held unenforceable for inequitable conduct.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/07/2001
• Published 09/07/2001

Judges

• MAYER, Chief Judge., Before MAYER, Chief Judge, NEWMAN and CLEVENGER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James J. Foster,Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C., of Boston, MA, argued for plaintiff-appellant GFI, Inc. With him on the brief was Matthew B. Lowrie.


• For Appellees:
  
• Norwood Robinson, Robinson & Lawing, L.L.P., of Winston-Salem, NC, argued for defendant-cross appellant Franklin Corporation.   With him on the brief were John N. Taylor, Jr., and Stephen Robinson., V. Bryan Medlock, Sidley & Austin, of Dallas, TX, argued for defendants-cross appellants Washington Furniture Manufacturing Co., et al.   Of counsel on the brief were Constantine L. Trela, Jr., and Joseph B. Maher, Sidley & Austin, of Chicago, IL. Also of counsel on the brief was Kenneth M. Burns, of Okolona, MS., J.T. Martin, of Washington, DC, argued for defendant-appellee Parkhill Furniture, Inc. Of counsel was John M. Creekmore, of Amory, Mississippi.