Federal Circuit Confirms § 112(a) Support Required for a Reference’s Provisional Prior-Art Date
In Dental Monitoring SAS v. Align Technology, Inc., the Federal Circuit vacated a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Inter Partes Review (IPR) decision and held that under 35 U.S.C. § 102(d)(2), a published patent application receives the benefit of its provisional’s filing date for prior-art purposes only if the provisional provides written description support under § 112(a) for at least one claim of the published application.
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