United States Federal Circuit

Summary judgment in favor of defendant United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) on whether it properly calculated the Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) period for plaintiff's '374 patent covering the chemical compound cobicistat is affirmed, where: 1) a reasonable interpretation of 35 U.S.C. section 154(b)(2)(C)(iii) is that Congress intended to sanction not only applicant conduct or behavior that results in actual delay, but also those having the potential to result in delay irrespective of whether such delay actually occurred; and 2) although an applicant's conduct, as here, may not actually result in delaying the issuance of that applicant's patent, such conduct may have negative externalities for other patent applicants because it could result in delaying the issuance of their patents.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/26/2015
• Published 02/26/2015

Judges

• Wallach

Court

• United States Federal Circuit

Counsel