Indefiniteness Standard During Patent Prosecution: In re Packard

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision upholding an examiner’sindefiniteness rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b), invoking the standard from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure(MPEP).  In re Packard, Case No. 13-1204 (Fed. Cir., May 6, 2014) (per curium) (O’Malley, J., Plager, J., Taranto, J.) (Plager, J., concurring).

This is a case of first impression for the Federal Circuit and goes to the standard for indefiniteness to be applied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) when examining application claims.

The PTAB applied the standard set forth in MPEP § 2173.05(e), namely, “[a] claim is indefinite when it contains words or phrases whose meaning is unclear.”  Packard appealed, arguing that the PTAB should have applied the “insoluably ambiguous” standard.

http://www.natlawreview.com/article/indefiniteness-standard-during-patent-prosecution-re-packard