What are the potential consequences of misrepresenting information in a patent application?

Misrepresenting information in a patent application can have serious consequences:

• The patent may be held invalid or unenforceable
• It may lead to allegations of fraud or inequitable conduct
• The applicant may face legal and financial repercussions

MPEP 2004 warns: “Misrepresentations can occur when experiments which were run or conducted are inaccurately reported in the specification, e.g., an experiment is changed by leaving out one or more ingredients.” The section also cites cases where misrepresentations led to patents being held unenforceable, such as Apotex v. UCB, Inc., where “the patent specification omitted material information was among the facts that supported a conclusion that the patent is unenforceable due to inequitable conduct.”

To learn more:

• misrepresentation
• patent application
• inequitable conduct
• fraud
• patent enforcement