Lawrence M. Sung, Ph.D. wrote in the American Law Review (Volume 48) in 1999 an article titled, "Echos of Scientific Truth in the Halls of Justice: The Standards of Review Applied by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Patent-Related Matters."
In his introduction, Dr. Sung writes:
The interplay between science and the law finds its reflection in many aspects of legal practice. Testing the limits of our scientific understanding is not an effort unique to patent law. Yet, perhaps no other area besides patent law involves the consideration of the legal rights to which science itself may be entitled. In this sense, patent law stands alone in governing science. This result, however, is neither the intended focus of patent law, nor the mission of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”).
The goal of the U.S. patent system is to promote innovation to foster the continued global competitiveness of domestic industries. That science may be called into question during the application of the patent laws is a natural by-product of the determination whether a technology event rises to the level of innovation that merits government protection. Innocent victim or not, science often captures the spotlight in such patent considerations.
This Article addresses the difficulty at times in finding justice in the patent law decisions of the Federal Circuit in the face of apparent misapplications, or seemingly intentional ignorance, of otherwise accepted scientific or engineering principles. Part I discusses the confusion the casual observer might encounter when studying such decisions without an appreciation of the standards of review that dictate the Federal Circuit’s resolution of an appeal. In Part II, the Article considers several significant cases, including Dickinson v. Zurko, in which the Federal Circuit struggles with questions about the appropriate standard of review. The Article concludes in Part III with a survey of the applicable standards of review by the Federal Circuit on various specific patent law issues. Through this review, the Article seeks to facilitate a more balanced consideration of the patent law decisions of the Federal Circuit in hopes of reaching a better understanding of otherwise suspect holdings from a scientific validity perspective.
Read the full article here.
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