Appeal No. 2000-0379
Application No. 08/815,352
("Appellants contend that their declarations are consistent
with the declarations submitted by [patentees] Tulagin and
Clark, and are sufficient to support a finding that the
patentees derived the relevant subject matter from them. We
do not find these declarations sufficient to discharge
appellants' burden of proof to establish that the patentees
derived the relevant subject matter from them. Nothing in the
declarations of record precludes the possibility that the
relevant subject matter was disclosed to the patentees by some
third party."). Nor is such a requirement implied by DeBaun's
holding that the record in that case, including applicant's
"unequivocal declaration [under § 1.131] that he conceived
anything in the '768 [reference] patent disclosure which
suggests the invention claimed in his present application,"
was sufficient to establish that the subject matter at issue
was conceived by DeBaun.
However, Hull's declaration clearly demonstrates both
inventorship by the Appellant and derivation by the patentees.
Hull explains that he has been continuously employed by
Western Digital Corporation (WDC), the assignee of Appellant's
application, since April 1981; that he is familiar with
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