The USPTO has issued a set of final rules to implement the Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement Act of 2004 (CREATE Act) that amended Section 103(c) of the Patent Act effective September 14, 2005. As we described in an earlier post, the purpose of the Act is to promote cooperative research, such as between a university and start-up company by excluding prior art from obviousness (103) consideration if the prior art arose from a joint research agreement.
The newly implemented rules do not require a statement of the field of the claimed invention or a statement of the date of execution of the agreement. A processing fee of $130 will be required and the applicant must provide a “statement of compliance.”
The CREATE Act amends 35 U.S.C. 103(c) to provide that subject matter developed by another person shall be treated as owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person for purposes of determining obviousness if three conditions are met: (1) The claimed invention was made by or on behalf of parties to a joint research agreement that was in effect on or before the date the claimed invention was made; (2) the claimed invention was made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of the joint research agreement; and (3) the application for patent for the claimed invention discloses or is amended to disclose the names of the parties to the joint research agreement. See Pub. L. 108–453, 118 Stat. 3596 (2004). Section 2 of the CREATE Act specifically amended 35 U.S.C. 103(c) to provide that:
(1) Subject matter developed by another person, which qualifies as prior art only under one or more of subsections (e), (f), and (g) of section 102 of this title, shall not preclude patentability under this section where the subject matter and the claimed invention were, at the time the claimed invention was made, owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person.
(2) For purposes of this subsection, subject matter developed by another person and a claimed invention shall be deemed to have been owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person if—
(A) The claimed invention was made by or on behalf of parties to a joint research agreement that was in effect on or before the date the claimed invention was made;
(B) The claimed invention was made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of the joint research agreement; and
(C) The application for patent for the claimed invention discloses or is amended to disclose the names of the parties to the joint research agreement.
(3) For purposes of paragraph (2), the term “joint research agreement” means a written contract, grant, or cooperative agreement entered into by two or more persons or entities for the performance of experimental, developmental, or research work in the field of the claimed invention.
Section 3 of the CREATE Act provides that its amendments shall apply to any patent (including any reissue patent) granted on or after December 10, 2004.
The CREATE Act provides that its amendments shall not affect any final decision of a court or the Office rendered before December 10, 2004, and shall not affect the right of any party in any action pending before the Office or a court on December 10, 2004, to have that party’s rights determined on the basis of the provisions of title 35, United States Code, in effect on December 9, 2004. Since the CREATE Act also includes the amendment to 35 U.S.C. 103(c) made by § 4807 of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (see Pub. L. 106–113, 113 Stat. 1501, 1501A– 591 (1999)), the change of “subsection (f) or (g)” to “one or more of subsections (e), (f), or (g)” in 35 U.S.C. 103(c) is now also applicable to applications filed prior to November 29, 1999, which were pending on December 10, 2004. 35 U.S.C. 103(c) as amended by the CREATE Act continues to apply only to subject matter which qualifies as prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g), and which is being relied upon in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103. If the rejection is anticipation under 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f), or (g), 35 U.S.C. 103(c) cannot be relied upon to disqualify the subject matter in order to overcome the anticipation rejection. Because the CREATE Act applies only to patents granted on or after December 10, 2004, the recapture doctrine may prevent the presentation of claims in reissue applications that had been amended or cancelled (e.g., to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) based upon subject matter that may now be disqualified under the CREATE Act) during the prosecution of the application which resulted in the patent for which reissue is sought. See H.R. Rep. No. 108–425, at 6–7 (2003). The Office published an interim rule to revise the rules of practice in title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to implement the CREATE Act. See Changes to Implement the Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement Act of 2004, 70 FR 1818 (Jan. 11, 2005), 1291 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 58 (Feb. 8, 2005) (interim rule). This final rule further revises the rules of practice in title 37, CFR, to implement the CREATE Act.
The final rule is here.
