Patent Law Developments in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit During 1990

The subject patent in the case of Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation v. Genentech, Inc.I was a reissue patent entitled "Ul-trapurification of Factor VIII Using Monoclonal Antibodies. " 2 Before the district court, the accused infringer had argued that sev-eral claims of the patent were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) based upon subject matter described in a 1979 publication by a Dr. Harris The parties had filed three successive declarations of Dr. Harris with the district court, each declaration explaining the meaning of the 1979 publication. The district court, citing the third Harris declaration, held that the claims were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) in view of the 1979 Harris publication and granted the accused infringer's motion for summary judgment on this issue. ' The patentee appealed. On appeal, the Federal Circuit observed that it is sometimes appropriate to consider extrinsic evidence to explain the meaning of