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56 J. Pat. Off. Soc'y 345 (1974)
Fraud on the Patent Office

handle is hein.journals/jpatos56 and id is 371 raw text is: Lawrence B. I FRAUD ON THE Dodds * I PATENT OFFICE* I - PRE-WALKER PROCESS DECISIONS Prior to the notorious decision of the Supreme Court in Walker Process v. Food Machinery (1965)1 the au- thorities had held that a patent could be attacked for fraud in its procurement only by the Attorney General in a suit to cancel the patent-fraud was not available as a defense in a suit for infringement. This had been the law for nearly 100 years at the time of the Walker Process decisions. One of the earliest and classic decisions was Railroad Company v. Dub ois 2 in which the Supreme Court noted that the defendants had pleaded that the letters patent of the plaintiff were obtained by fraud and imposition on the Patent Office. The Court then rejected the de- fense, holding that: * * * the defendants, when sued for an infringement, were not at liberty to set up as a defence that the patent had been fraudulently obtained, no fraud appearing upon its face. (p. 64) The rule was firmly entrenched in our law by the classic Supreme Court case of United States v. Bell Telephone Company3 which was an action by the Gov- ernment to void certain patents of Alexander Graham Bell on the ground of alleged fraudulent procurement from the Patent Office. The principal question decided by the Court was the power of the Government to pro- secute such an action. In holding that the Government did have such power, the Court referred to the statutes enumerating defenses available to an infringer and said: * Talk given at Seminar, Government Patent Lawyer's Association, Arlington, Va., March 27, 1974. ** Vice President & Patent Counsel Hazeltine Corporation Member of the Bars of District of Columbia and New York. 1382 U.S. 172; 147 USPQ 404. 2 (1870) 79 U.S. 47. (1888) 128 U.S. 315. -345-

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