PTO's Acceptance of Deficient Maintenance Fee Precludes Review of PTO's Decision by District Court

The court denied defendants' motion for summary judgment that plaintiff's DNA sequencing patent was invalid for failure to timely pay a maintenance fee. "[T]he Federal Circuit has considered the issue and held that a district court has no obligation or authority to analyze whether a patent has expired where the submission of a deficiency fee payment is accepted by the PTO pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 1.28(c). The court declines to accept defendants’ invitation to find that the Federal Circuit would have held differently had a more thorough review of 35 U.S.C. § 41 been undertaken by the panel."

LadaTech LLC v. Illumina Inc., 1-09-cv-00627 (DED January 24, 2012, Order) (Robinson, J.)