INTRODUCTION

Economic Basis for Patent System

In BONITO BOATS, INC. v. THUNDER CRAFT BOATS, INC., 489 U.S. 141 (1989): full text, the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justic O'Connor, discussed the primarily economic basis for the patent system.

Article I, § 8, cl. 8, of the Constitution gives Congress the power

"[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

The Patent Clause itself reflects a balance between the need to encourage innovation and the avoidance of monopolies which stifle competition without any concomitant advance in the "Progress of Science and useful Arts." As we have noted in the past, the Clause contains both a grant of power and certain limitations upon the exercise of that power. Congress may not create patent monopolies of unlimited duration, nor may it

"authorize the issuance of patents whose effects are to remove existent knowledge from the public domain, or to restrict free access to materials already available."

Graham v. John Deere Co. of Kansas City, 383 U. S. 1, 383 U. S. 6 (1966).

From their inception, the federal patent laws have embodied a careful balance between the need to promote innovation and the recognition that imitation and refinement through imitation are both necessary to invention itself, and the very lifeblood of a competitive economy.

Constitutional Foundation

BONITO BOATS, INC. v. THUNDER CRAFT BOATS, INC., 489 U.S. 141 (1989): full text BONITO BOATS, INC. v. THUNDER CRAFT BOATS, INC., 489 U.S. 141 (1989)

Governing Law

The federal laws of the United States are called the US Code, which is organized into 50 Titles. The primary sections of the United States Code governing patents is Title 35, which has four parts:

• PART I—UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
• PART II—PATENTABILITY OF INVENTIONS AND GRANT OF PATENTS
• PART III—PATENTS AND PROTECTION OF PATENT RIGHTS
• PART IV—PATENT COOPERATION TREATY

The main parts we will consider in this course are Parts II and IV. We will study, in detail, the standards for an invention to be eligible for a patent, which is commonly referred to as patentability which is the focus of some of the sections in Part II. Part IV is the focus of the international aspects of patent law.

Relationship to State Laws

The supremacy clause in Article VI of the US Constitution states

the laws of the United States ... shall be the supreme law of the land

which means they preempt all state laws. Since the Federal Government has decided to regulate patents, any attempt to do so by the states is invalid.

Federal Court System

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Established on October 1, 1982. The holdings of the the CCPA and the U.S. Court of Claims are binding precedent in the Federal Circuit, South Corp. v. US (South Corp. v. US (full text)).