Inventorship, particularly assertion of proper inventorship, has a unique place in U. Constitution, which gives Congress the power to grant patents "to Inventors. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. Indeed, there was a time when misjoinder of invention the error of naming a person as an inventor who is not an inventor or nonjoinder the error of omitting an inventor could render a patent invalid.
This draconian consequence was ameliorated over time; the standard was changed over 30 years ago to permit correction of inventorship in granted patents provided that there was no deceptive intent in the misjoinder or nonjoinder 35 U. Even this requirement was loosened by the America Invents Act, which amended relevant sections of Title 35 to no longer require a lack of deceptive intent see " The Disappearance of Deceptive Intent in S.
Patent Nos. Hrabal were informed from a former Goodyear employee that the company had used CODA's SIT technology to develop its own self-inflating tires and that the company had filed patent applications based on their copying of CODA's technology as disclosed in the meetings. Over a four year period, the patents set forth above were granted to Goodyear inventors and assigned to the company.
CODA's complaint sought changing inventorship of the ' patent to name Mr. Hrabal as inventor and go delete the Goodyear inventors. Hrabal as an inventor. The complaint also contained a claim for misappropriation of trade secrets. Goodyear filed its motion to dismiss based on an earlier Hrabal filing and for failure to adequately describe the invention purportedly improperly obtained by Goodyear based on CODA's disclosure, and that the trade secret misappropriation claim was barred by the relevant statute of limitations.
Goodyear also responded to CODA's opposition to its motion by asserting a Hrabal publication disclosing the invention, which proffer CODA argued the District Court should disregard because it was offered for the first time in Goodyear's reply brief. The District Court denied CODA's motion to strike the reference denoting the reference as a public disclosure that was within the Court's purview to judicially notice and granted Goodyear's motion to dismiss.
