Looking in from the outside, I find it interesting that just as the courts in the USA shut down the DoE the Supreme Court in the UK has opened up the Doctrine, in an effort to deliver, on a perceived need to give inventors a scope of protection that is fair, in the sense that it is commensurate with their contribution to the art.

How is it, that the Supreme Court in London perceives this pressing need? Why, because the EPO is ever more assiduously enforcing a “First Inventor to File” priority regime for granting patents. Only that precise invention on which you were the first to the Office with a sufficient, enabled WD is prosecutable through to issue.

In the context of patent law in the USA, there is ever talk about swings of the pendulum. As FItF asserts its presence ever more strongly in the courts of appeal in patent infringement cases in the USA, I expect to see a return, in due course, of a DoE that is significant. Remember, trends that Prep and Pros types observe today are recognised by the denizens of the higher courts only 10 or 15 years later.