By Kevin E. Noonan — The Federal Circuit soon will have the opportunity to decide a question left open during a recent spate of opinions involving the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting (OTDP): the effect patent term adjustment (PTA) can (or should) have on creating circumstances where OTDP will operate to find a patent invalid in the absence of a timely filed terminal disclaimer. The issue arose in a series of ex parte reexaminations over five patents owned by Cellect, U.S. Patent Nos. 6,424,369; 6,452,626; 6,982,742; and 7,002,621, that involve "solid state image sensors which are configured to…
