Federal Circuit’s LG Decision Leaves Patent Error Law Murky

A split Federal Circuit panel’s refusal to shift the standard for when errors in patents are considered apparent keeps in place a muddled, fact-dependent test that can make it difficult for attorneys to know when to mount challenges.

An industry expert finding a transcription mistake in a decades-old patent—through a process that included translating a Japanese application—shows that an inaccuracy doesn’t need to be immediately clear to an expert in the field to render the patent unusable to show a later patent to be invalid as obvious, a two-judge majority from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ...