In re Hilmer (Hilmer I)
Court of Customs and Patent Appeals
359 F.2d 859 (1966)
Relevant factsFree
Hilmer's (applicant) patent application was rejected as obvious partly based on the Habicht patent, which was filed in the U.S. after Hilmer's application but claimed priority to an earlier-filed Swiss application under § 119. The Patent Office Board of Appeals held that Habicht's prior-art date for § 102(e) purposes was its earlier Swiss filing date, which predated Hilmer's own priority date, and upheld the examiner's rejection on that basis.
IssueFree
Where a U.S. patent application has an earlier foreign priority date, may that earlier date serve as the effective prior art date against a subsequently-filed patent application?