Conscious Choices Are Not Errors Correctable by Reissue

In re Serenkin, [06-1242](March 6, 2007)[LOURIE, Schall, Gajarsa] The Federal Circuit afrimed the Board's decision that reissue cannot correct a deliberate choice. Serenkin filed a PCT application claiming priority to a provisional application, but omitting the drawings. Serenkin chose to relinquish the claim priority, and accepted the date the drawings were finally submited as the international filing date. A U.S. patent eventually issued from the PCT application, and Serenkin tried to reissue it to claim the original provisional filing date, instead of the later PCT filing date. The Federal Circuit said that our case law holds that the deliberate action of an inventor or attorney during prosecution generally fails to qualify a a correctable error under Section 251.