Today the Federal Circuit is hearing oral arguments in Google v. Sonos on the doctrine of prosecution laches. The panel is interesting and has the potential of resulting in a pro-Google decision. Federal Circuit Judges Prost and Lourie, along with D.N.J. District Court Judge Renée Marie Bumb, sitting by designation.
Judge Lourie authored the Symbol v. Lemleson decision that revived the doctrine back in 2005. More interestingly, Judge Lourie wrote the opinion in Cancer Research Tech. Ltd. v. Barr Laboratories, Inc., 625 F.3d 724 (Fed. Cir. 2010), with Judge Prost in dissent. In that case, the majority found no laches, but Judge Prost would have found the patent unenforceable due to prosecution laches.
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