Justices Grant Solicitor General Argument Time in Patent Case

The federal government will argue alongside parties fighting over the future of a doctrine that bars an inventor who sells his patent rights from later claiming the patent was wrongly issued when the U.S. Supreme Court hears the case April 21.

The court granted Acting Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar’s motion to participate in oral argument, allowing the government 10 minutes to argue. Patent owner Hologic Inc. and the inventor’s new company Minerva Surgical Inc. each agreed to waive five minutes of argument time.

The high court agreed in November to review a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal ...