Raising the disclosure hurdle

A decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that rendered a patent unenforceable regardless of its validity highlights an old problem in the law that makes it easier to get rid of patents. Many stakeholders believe the "inequitable conduct" doctrine should be repealed or amended in the patent reform bills that are currently in the House and Senate.

The case, McKesson Information Solutions Inc. v. Bridge Medical Inc., concerns McKesson's U.S. Patent No. 4,857,716, which covers a system for identifying items, such as drugs, that correspond with hospital patients. The system uses a wireless handheld device to read a patient's identifier and access information from a terminal that is connected to a central database...