Interference 102,728
an inventor’s testimony, standing alone, is insufficient to prove conception -
some form of corroboration must be shown. Amax Fly Ash Corp., 514 F.2d
[1041] at 1047, 182 USPQ [210] at 215 [Ct. Cl. 1975]. This rule is not new to
patent law:
[C]onception by an inventor, for the purpose of establishing priority, can
not be proved by his mere allegation nor by his unsupported testimony
where there has been no disclosure to others or embodiment of the
invention in some clearly perceptible form, such as drawings or model with
sufficient proof of identity in point of time. For otherwise[,] such facile
means of establishing priority of invention would, in many cases, offer
great temptation to perjury, and would have the effect of virtually
precluding the adverse party from the possibility of rebutting such
evidence. Hence it has been ruled in many cases that the mere
unsupported evidence of the alleged inventor, on an issue of priority, as to
... conception and the time thereof, can not be received as sufficient proof
of ... prior conception [emphasis added].
A “rule of reason” applies to determine whether the inventor’s conception
testimony has been sufficiently corroborated, but it does not dispense with the
requirement for some independent corroboration. Price v. Symsek, 988 F.2d at 1189,
26 USPQ2d at 1037; Coleman v. Dines, 754 F.2d at 360, 224 USPQ at 862. The “rule
of reason” simply means that “[a]n evaluation of all pertinent evidence must be made
so that a sound determination of the credibility of the inventor’s story may be reached.”
Price v. Symsek, 988 F.2d at 1189, 26 USPQ2d at 1037. In other words, the “rule of
reason” applies to corroboration, not to conception.
It is well established that conception consists of two parts: (1) the idea of the
result to be accomplished, and (2) the knowledge of the means for effectively carrying
out that idea. Rivise and Caesar, Interference Law and Practice, Vol. 1, § 110
(p. 319)(Michie Co. 1943). Thus, “conception of an invention is not the perception of or
realization of the desirability of producing a certain result, but is rather the perception or
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