Wait! Don't throw that thing out!

To anyone who has read my earlier posts, my fascination with "old" patents (i.e., patents with very long prosecution histories) won’t come as news.  Often these old inventions, despite getting a fresh 17 year monopoly when they issue, may have lost much of their latent value through obsolescence (if that secrecy order is eventually removed, the thing probably is not so important anymore...), or perhaps changes in law (think Bilski, or regulatory changes affecting applicability).  But this week we were given about 371 million reminders why some of these old inventions really do matter.  That’s the number of dollars W.L. Gore must pay C.R. Bard for infringing U.S. Patent No. 6,436,135, after the Court (D. Ariz.) doubled the jury’s award.

Take a close look at the filing date – it’s not a misprint. 1974.  And the patent issued in 2002 after an epic prosecution battle that included a 15 year interference.  (Only the transaction history is available on PAIR.  I imagine the file wrapper is ginormous)  So we’re already at 35 years, and I’d be shocked if it ended here.  Can you imagine taking a case as a first-year associate, and to have that case with you the rest of your career?  Without knowing much more than this (and I really do not know much more than this), I would bet that there’s a movie script or two lurking in there.  I'd be curious to hear some war stories from any of the presumably dozens of attorneys who must have been involved in this patent's 28 year prosecution.

There’s another factoid about the ‘135 patent, but I’ll save it for a future date.  And I should have another post coming later today reviewing some of today’s issuances.