After hundreds of companies paid inventor Jerome Lemelson more than $1.5 billion in licensing fees, the Federal Circuit has concluded that his patents aren't enforceable after all, ruling that the 18- to 39-year delay in prosecuting patent claims relating to machine vision and bar-code technologies was unreasonable. The closely watched case involves "submarine" patents that are kept in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for years only to come to the surface after technologies have evolved.
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Lemelson Patents Ruled Unenforceable
The Recorder
September 13, 2005
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