Patent Law Fundamentals Flashcards
7 cards from real Patent Bar Exam practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Patent Law Fundamentals flashcards as text
Under 35 U.S.C. § 135, what is an 'interference proceeding' in pre-AIA patent law?
Answer: A proceeding to determine priority of invention between two parties who claimed the same invention
Under pre-AIA law, interference proceedings before the PTAB determined which of two or more applicants (or patentees) was the first to invent the same subject matter.
What does the 'written description' requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112(a) require?
Answer: The specification must reasonably convey to a POSITA that the inventor possessed the claimed invention as of the filing date
The written description requirement is satisfied when the specification reasonably conveys to a person of ordinary skill that the inventor had possession of the claimed invention at the time of filing.
An inventor assigns her patent application to a company. Later, the company wants to license the patent to a third party. Which statement is correct?
Answer: The company, as assignee and patent owner, can license the patent without the inventor's consent
An assignment transfers all rights to the assignee, including the right to license; the inventor has no further rights in the patent unless expressly retained in the assignment agreement.
Under 35 U.S.C. § 284, what is the minimum damages award for patent infringement?
Answer: A reasonable royalty for the use made of the invention
Section 284 requires the court to award damages adequate to compensate for the infringement, but no less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the invention by the infringer.
What is the 'doctrine of exhaustion' (patent exhaustion) in U.S. patent law?
Answer: A rule that the first authorized sale of a patented item exhausts the patent owner's rights to control that particular item
Under the patent exhaustion doctrine (reaffirmed in Impression Products v. Lexmark), an authorized sale of a patented item terminates all patent rights in that particular item, allowing the buyer to use and resell it freely.
What is required for a patent application to satisfy the 'enablement' requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112(a)?
Answer: The specification must teach a POSITA how to make and use the full scope of the claimed invention without undue experimentation
The enablement requirement mandates that the specification teach a person of ordinary skill in the art how to make and use the claimed invention across its full scope without requiring undue experimentation.
Under the AIA's 'first-inventor-to-file' system, which event determines patent priority between two independent inventors of the same invention?
Answer: The effective filing date of the patent application
Under the AIA first-inventor-to-file system, priority goes to the inventor with the earliest effective filing date, not the earliest date of conception or reduction to practice.
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