Chudik v. Hirshfeld, No. 20-1833 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 8, 2021)

From the Opinion

The passage below is extracted verbatim from the opening of the document. It has not been editorially summarized — consult the full opinion for the court's complete reasoning.

Dr. Steven Chudik applied to the Patent and Trade- mark Office (PTO) for a patent on his “Guide for Shoulder Surgery” on September 29, 2006. When the assigned PTO examiner issued a second rejection of all then -pending claims as unpatentable in 2010, Dr. Chudik took a step that would turn out to have consequences for the patent term adjustment awarded under 35 U.S.C. § 154(b) when his application ultimately issued as a patent. Rather than immediately taking an appeal to the Patent Trial and Ap- peal Board under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), Dr.