Therasense v. Becton, Dickinson: An Opportunity for the Federal Circuit to Mend Its Fractured Inequitable Conduct Rulings

摘要

In November 2010, the en bane Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will, for the first time in more than 20 years, reconsider nearly all facets of its inequitable conduct jurisprudence when it hears oral argument in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co. The court's need to resolve its often confusing and divergent precedent concerning inequitable conduct should have been apparent from a survey of the court's inequitable conduct cases in the last few years. After a year, 2007, that was relatively free from controversy-just a single dissent was filed on an inequitable conduct issue-2008,2009, and the first half of 2010 have seen significant fracturing of the court. This article addresses a number of significant inequitable conduct cases since 2008.