German Thesis Invalidates Patent

A patent was held invalid because of a thesis in a German university library. Apparently you can't patent something if it has been disclosed somewhere else even though that disclosure might be difficult to track down.

"The examiner rejected the claims of Hall’s reissue application on the grounds that they were anticipated under 35 USC 102(b) by a doctoral thesis in a university library in the Federal Republic of Germany that was made available to the public more than one year prior to the critical date. The examiner’s rejection was sustained on appeal to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences.

The director and manager of the university library loan department had made a statement that approximated the date the thesis would have been available to the public based on the library’s procedures for processing doctoral theses. The estimated date was over two months prior to the critical date. He also stated that theses were made available to the public by indexing in a dissertations catalog and placement in a dissertations section within the general stacks."

In re Hall at Pharmaceutical Chemistry Patent Blog.