United States Federal Circuit

In plaintiffs' suit asserting a claim for correction of inventorship of patents related to high temperature superconducting compositions, judgment of the district court is: 1) reversed as to its judgment in favor of the defendant based on the affirmative defense of laches where the laches period for a section 256 correction of inventorship claim begins to run when "the omitted inventor knew or should have known of the issuance of the patent," regardless of whether the omitted inventor knew or should have know of the omitted inventorship while the patent application was pending before the PTO; 2) affirmed as to the judgment in favor of defendant with respect to plaintiff's unclean hands defense; and 3) vacated as to the judgment in favor of defendant based on equitable estoppel where the court erred in sua sponte granting summary judgment based on this affirmative defense in light of defendant's failure to assert the defense against either plaintiffs.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/14/2012
• Published 11/14/2012

Judges

• Prost

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel