Law Center Search Results

On 6/20/01, the NAM, along with the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Federal Circuit Bar Association, filed an amicus brief supporting a petition for rehearing en banc in this case. The brief supports the so-called "two-way test" in approving patent applications involving double patents. Double patenting can occur when an applicant claims an invention broadly at an early stage and then more narrowly as the invention is refined, particularly as its commercial potential becomes clear. Each patent must be separately justified. The two-way test -- which requires a showing that the claims of each patent are unpatentable over the claims of the other -- protects the inventor whose applications, through no fault of his own, are examined and issued in reverse order relative to their filing dates, so that the inventor's improvement will not defeat the patentability of his own basic invention.

Surprisingly, the court, over the objection of four judges, denied our motion to file the brief on 6/27/01. The petition for rehearing was denied without comment on 7/18/01.