Winter v. Fujita

Winter v. Fujita, 53 U.S.P.Q.2d 1234 (Bd.Pat.App. Int. 1999), was an early decision by the Board construing former Rule 601(n) as requiring a "two-way" test for determining whether at least one claim of a first party interferes with at least one claim of another party so as to create an interference-in-fact. The holding of Winter v. Fujita has been codified in the current rules at 37 C.F.R. 41.203(a). The Board also addressed whether a motion to add a reissue application to an interference may seek to have any of the newly-added reissue claims designated as not corresponding to the count. The Board held that adding non-original patent claims in an involved reissue application was inappropriate and would result in dismissal of the motion seeking to add the reissue application.