By Kevin E. Noonan — Interferences were rendered unnecessary with the passage of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in 2011, but they linger in disputes between patents and applications claiming priority to applications filed before the change to a “first-inventor-to-file” system. The Federal Circuit recently upheld the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s priority determination in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. University of Wyoming Research Corp. in a decision based on the Board’s construction of an undisputedly dispositive term. U.S. Interference No. 106,064 was declared between the University of Wyoming Research Corp. (over involved U.S. Patent No. 8,367,425 and Chevron U.S.A.’s Application…
