Interference No. 104,745
produce an appropriate receiver for testing the component); Courson v. O'Connor,
227 F. 890, 894 (7th Cir. 1915)("exercise of reasonable diligence * * * does not
require an inventor to devote his entire time thereto, or to abandon his ordinary
means of livelihood"); De Wallace v. Scott, 15 App.D.C. 157 (1899)(where
applicant made bona fide attempts to perfect his invention, applicant's poor
health, responsibility to feed his family, and daily job demands excused his delay
in reducing his invention to practice); Texas Co. v. Globe Oil & Refining Co.,
112 F.Supp. 455, 98 USPQ 312 (N.D. Ill. 1953)(delay in filing application
excused because of confusion relating to war).
"[T]he activities relied upon as constituting diligence must have been directed to a reduction to
practice of the invention in issue or to overcoming the difficulties that may have been in the way
of a reduction to practice." C. Rivise & A. Caesar, I Interference Law and Practice § 182
(Michie Co. 1940). As with conception and reduction to practice, corroboration is required.
Price v. Symsek, 988 F.2d 1187, 1196, 26 USPQ2d 1031, 1038 (Fed. Cir. 1993). It is necessary
to account for the entire critical period, Griffith, 816 F.2d at 626, 2 USPQ2d at 1362, with
evidence that is specific as to facts and dates. Gould v. Schawlow, 363 F.2d 908, 920, 150
USPQ 634, 644 (CCPA 1966).
Most of the testimony by the Laiko witnesses regarding diligence lacks date specificity,
instead placing the acts during time periods bounded by dates apparently obtained from the
documentary evidence. For example, LX 1059 is a Laser Science Inc. ("Laser Science") form
which according to Dr. Baldwin and Ms. Diana Ferreira (of Laser Science) shows that on
26 November 1997, Dr. Baldwin contacted Laser Science about repairing a broken nitrogen laser
(made by Laser Science29). Baldwin Decl. (LX 1074) ¶ 44; Ferreira Decl. (LX 1058) ¶ 4. This
26 November 1997 contact date and the 30 October 1997 conception date established by Dr.
29 Burlingame Depo., LR 400, ll. 4-6.
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