United States Supreme Court

In a civil action under 35 USC section 145 against the Director of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) challenging the denial of a patent, the Federal Circuit's reversal of summary judgment to the Director is affirmed, with holdings that: 1) there are no limitations on a patent applicant's ability to introduce new evidence in a section 145 proceeding beyond those already present in the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; and 2) if new evidence is presented on a disputed question of fact, the district court must make de novo factual findings that take account of both the new evidence and the administrative record before the PTO.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/18/2012
• Published 04/18/2012

Judges

• Thomas

Court

• United States Supreme Court

Counsel