by Dennis Crouch
Back in October 2024, I previewed the Federal Circuit case of Lynk Labs v. Samsung in a post titled Secret Springing Prior Art and Inter Partes Review. The court has now released its decision -- holding that in IPR proceedings a published patent application is considered prior art as of its filing date. [Read it here] This solidifies the approach already taken by the USPTO and is significant because a substantial percentage of references relied upon to cancel patent rights represent "secret prior art" that were non-public at the time the patent was originally filed. The court's analysis delves deep into statutory interpretation, legislative history, and the balance between different sections of patent law. Unfortunately, the Judge Prost opinion is almost unintelligible at its most critical point - where it explains how the legal term "printed publication" is date agnostic.
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