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A.

PTC RESEARCH FOUNDATION QUESTIONNAIRE

Has your company/client challenged the validity of a patent that it had licensed under the Lear doctrine? (If so, was the challenge successful? Court decision or settlement?)

B.

C.

ho.

Has your company/client, as a licensor, been challenged by a licensee as
to patent validity under the Lear doctrine?
(If so, was the challenge
successful?

Court decision or settlement?)

ho

Has Lear had any significant practical impact, in your experience, upon the licensing process? (If so, please explain briefly.)

Yes. I believe licensors have had to make

adjisments such as

incorporating special provisions attempting to get

in bienses and also in

consent judgments before signing

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b.

Repeal of Lear, Inc. v. Adkins by legislation?

Legislation to require license payments until a decision ad-
verse to the patent?

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PTC RESEARCH FOUNDATION QUESTIONNAIRE

A.

Has your company/client challenged the validity of a patent that it had licensed under the Lear doctrine? (If so, was the challenge successful? Court decision or settlement?)

No

B.

Has your company/client, as a licensor, been challenged by a licensee as to patent validity under the Lear doctrine? (If so, was the challenge Court decision or settlement?)

successful?

No

C.

Has Lear had any significant practical impact, in your experience, upon the licensing process? (If so, please explain briefly.)

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yes b.

c.

Repeal of Lear, Inc. v. Adkins by legislation?

Legislation to require license payments until a decision ad-
verse to the patent?

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A.

PTC RESEARCH FOUNDATION QUESTIONNAIRE

Has your company/client challenged the validity of a patent that it had licensed under the Lear doctrine? (If so, was the challenge successful? Court decision or settlement?)

There have been no challenges by doctrine.

under the Lear

B.

Has your company/client, as a licensor, been
to patent validity under the Lear doctrine?
successful? Court decision or settlement?)

doctrine.

challenged by a licensee as (If so, was the challenge

has not been challenged by a licensee under the Lear

C.

Has Lear had any significant practical impact, in your experience, upon the licensing process? (If so, please explain briefly.)

The only impact relative to

operations is the

elimination of the formerly standard license agreement provision prohibiting the licensee from attacking the licensed patent.

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No b.

No c.

Repeal of Lear, Inc. v. Adkins by legislation?

Legislation to require license payments until a decision ad-
verse to the patent?

Any other legislation? (Briefly delineate.)

PTC RESEARCH FOUNDATION QUESTIONNAIRE

A.

Has your company/client challenged the validity of a patent that it had
licensed under the Lear doctrine?
(If so,
was the challenge successful?
Court decision or settlement?)

B.

C.

D.

No

Has your company/client, as a licensor, been challenged by a licensee as
to patent validity under the Lear doctrine?
(If so, was the challenge
successful?

Court decision or settlement?)

No

Has Lear had any significant practical impact, in your experience, upon the licensing process?

No

(If so, please explain briefly.)

Do you favor:

a. Repeal of Lear, Inc. v. Adkins by legislation?

maybe b.

c.

Legislation to require license payments until a decision adverse to the patent?

Any other legislation? (Briefly delineate.)

- d. Legisition

probably

not necessary

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Mis; the low has been pretty well defined

by comt decision.

UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE ● SCHOOL OF LAW
1420 North Charles Street • Baltimore, Maryland 21201

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Subject: H.R. 3577 and corresponding S. 1535 (paragraph a only) - Your letter of August 22, 1983 Requesting Opinion.

Dear Chairman Kastenmeier:

My opinion on these bills is limited by a lack of complete information on the worldwide picture. I urge you to ask the sponsors for a detailed report on which of the industralized countries follow the approach of protecting patented processes to prevent importation of products made by the patented process in other countries. This report should be specific on how the law is interpeted, as I will mention in detail below.

Generally, I think you will find the answer to the above question is that in most of these countries the proposed general approach is followed. For example my recent visit to the European Patent Office in Munich, West Germany, where I attended a meeting of the Association for Teaching and Research Intellectual Property Law, gave me an opportunity to review the European Patent Convention. Article 64(2) specifically expands the European patent rights in each member country, no matter what the law was earlier, to include the general protection proposed in the above bills. The European Patent Convention text in article 63(2) is:

"If the subject-matter of the European Patent is a process,
the protection conferred by the patent shall extend to the
products directly obtained by such process."

I am not aware that the European Patent Convention or any of its regulations specifies how the law will be applied, leaving it to the member countries to develop their specific application. For example, what happens if a product is manufactured overseas by U.S. patented process before the U.S. process patent expires, but it is not imported until afterwards? This step could be a cute way of getting a jump on U.S. companies who could

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