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Inequitable Conduct: Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Universal Security Instruments, Inc.

Inequitable Conduct: Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Universal Security Instruments, Inc.

No. 2009-1421 (Fed. Cir. 5/28/2010). Leviton filed several patent applications (that matured to granted patents) in 1999 and 2003 (“Germain application”) with nearly identical and in some cases identical claims. The 1999 and Germain application families were unrelated by priority and had no overlap of inventorship.  Leviton failed to disclose the 1999 application during prosecution …