United States Federal Circuit

In a suit alleging that a law firm committed legal malpractice in prosecuting a patent application, the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the law firm is affirmed, where the plaintiff did not carry its burden on causation, since: 1) the plaintiff failed to raise any material fact in dispute as to the nonobviousness of the proposed alternate claims, and failed to provide evidence demonstrating that its alternate claims were nonobvious; and 2) no inference could be drawn that an examiner would have allowed alternate claims of greater scope just because a more narrow patent was issued after an in-person interview.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/04/2012
• Published 05/04/2012

Judges

• Reyna

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Patrick T. Collins, Stephen R. Long