“Congress has enacted a comprehensive set of legal rules governing the timing of each step in the patent examination process. Yet, invoking the doctrine of ‘prosecution laches,’ the Patent and Trademark Office (‘PTO’) claims an equitable power to refuse to issue a patent, even when the applicant (as in this case) has met all the statutory requirements. Two decades ago, the Federal Circuit approved the doctrine in a pair of split decisions. Since then, this Court has twice held that laches is a limited ‘gap-filling doctrine’ that does not apply when, as here, Congress has filled the gaps with statutory timelines. SCA Hygiene Prods. Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Prods., LLC, 580 U.S. 328, 335 (2017); see also Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 572 U.S. 663, 679 (2014). The Federal Circuit has nevertheless stood by its ‘prosecution laches’ doctrine.”
“The question presented is:”
“Whether the PTO may invoke the equitable doctrine of ‘prosecution laches’ to deny a patent to an applicant who has complied with all the Patent Act’s timeliness provisions.”
