An appeals court wiped out patents belonging to Fortress Iron LP, which designs and sells outdoor fences and railing items, ruling the company’s omission of a Chinese inventor from its patent applications was fatal.
“A patent which incorrectly lists its inventors and cannot be correct according to law is invalid,” wrote Judge Alan D. Lourie in a precedential opinion issued Thursday, affirming a district court’s dismissal of Fortress Iron’s lawsuit against Indiana-based Digger Specialties Inc. over sales of a deck-railing product.
Writing for a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Lourie rejected Fortress Iron’s ...