USPTO has proposed amending the patent rules around terminal disclaimers to require that the disclaimed patent will only be enforceable if the patent is not tied and has never been tied to a patent held invalid for lack of novelty or obviousness. Comments on the proposed rule are due July 9.
If the rule goes into effect, this could have big repercussions for large patent portfolios which are often linked together by terminal disclaimers. Challengers would be able to invalidate one patent, causing a domino effect invalidating other members of the portfolio that have been terminally disclaimed over the challenged patent.
Read more in the post by Karen G. Potter and Jeff Schmidt, PhD, MBA, JD on the MoFo Life Sciences Blog.
https://lnkd.in/gEk4A66B