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The judge found Pope, Abbott and the researcher Gordon Sanghera guilty of inequitable conduct, making the ’551 patent unenforceable.
Alsup also invalidated some of the patent’s claims.
Pope had a chance to explain his side. After initial reluctance, his company put the lawyer on the stand, where he claimed he’d been trying to secure a strong patent for his employer and had no motive to conceal anything and undermine the patent’s enforceability. According to the ruling, he also testified that patent prosecutors often write specifications broadly early on, so he had read “optionally, but preferably” as an overblown way of saying “optionally, but always.”
“Attorney Pope,” wrote Alsup, “did not prove to be a convincing trial witness.”
