What is the significance of inventorship in overcoming a 35 U.S.C. 102(e) rejection?
What is the significance of inventorship in overcoming a 35 U.S.C. 102(e) rejection?
Inventorship plays a crucial role in overcoming a 35 U.S.C. 102(e) rejection. The MPEP 715.01(a) states:
“If the application and reference have at least one common inventor, the inventorship is not identical, and the effective filing date of the application is later than the effective filing date of the reference, the applicant may file an affidavit or declaration under 37 CFR 1.132 to show that the inventors named in the application are the prior inventors of the subject matter relied upon in the reference.”
This means that when facing a 102(e) rejection, an applicant can potentially overcome it by proving that the inventors named in their application invented the subject matter before the inventors of the reference. This is particularly important when there’s at least one common inventor between the application and the reference, but the inventive entities are not identical.
To learn more:
To learn more: