The doctrine of assignor estoppel @Minerva Surgical Inc. v. Hologic Inc.
특허침해소송에서 피고가 된 발명자가 자신의 발명에 대해 무효를 주장할 수 있을까요?
지금 미 연방대법원에서 뜨거운 주제가 되었네요.
"After a patent issues, the assignee contends that the inventor is infringing the patent and sues the inventor for patent infringement. As a defense, the inventor wants to argue that the patent is invalid. The doctrine of assignor estoppel precludes the inventor from challenging the validity of the patent, on the theory that the inventor made implicit representations about the patent’s validity at the time of assignment and may not later contradict those principles."
"In the 1969 case Lear, Inc. v. Adkins, the Supreme Court abolished the related doctrine of patent licensee estoppel, which prohibited a patent licensee from challenging the validity of the licensed patent."
