F YOU REPRESENT inventors of biotechnology inventions, you may need to take another look at the law of conception. In its recent ruling in Hitzeman v. Rutter, 243 F.3d 1345 (Fed. Cir. 2001), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit may have made it harder for inventors in the field of biotechnology to prove a date of conception for their inventions. There has been substantial debate within the biotechnology patent community as to whether the Hitzeman decision actually creates a new standard for conception or simply clarifies the pre-existing law. This article analyzes the extent to which Hitzeman has changed the law and what impact the decision is likely to have.
Law Prior to ‘Hitzeman’
