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Correcting missing patent inventors

Fortress Iron v. Digger Specialties

Updated Nov 12, 2026

In brief

Where it stands
Petition Pending

Awaiting an order on the petition

No decision timeline until the Court agrees to hear the case.

What it’s about
Fortress Iron filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit ruling in its patent dispute with Digger Specialties that, according to Fortress Iron, left a patent invalid because an agreed co-inventor could not be found for notice.
What's at stake
Fortress Iron and Digger Specialties' dispute over the patent remains unresolved, and the Supreme Court has not agreed to review whether the omitted co-inventor affects its validity.

Summary: written with AI from the case record.

What it's about

Fortress Iron says the inventor’s rights had been assigned to the patent owner and asks whether the omission can be corrected under current patent law.

Fortress's petition asks whether patent law allows an omitted co-inventor to be recognized when that person cannot be found to receive notice.

Question presented

1. Whether an agreed, omitted, co-inventor whose patent rights have been entirely assigned to the patent owner but who could not be found to receive notice is a “party concerned” entitled to notice and hearing under 35 U.S.C. § 256(b) preventing their contribution from being recognized even when all parties agree the omitted inventor is a true co-inventor who should be recognized, the omitted inventor’s rights are owned by the patent owner, and the omitted inventor can only be benefited, not harmed, by being recognized? 2. Whether a patent that correctly names at least some true inventors can be held invalid for the omission of one co-inventor after Congress repealed 35 U.S.C. § 102(f) in the America Invents Act, where the Federal Circuit’s invalidity holding relies on the very statutory framework that Congress eliminated and is contrary to the statutory trend of making correction of inventorship easier and invalidity for incorrect inventorship harder to achieve? 3. Whether the Federal Circuit’s interpretation of 35 U.S.C. § 256(b) and 35 U.S.C. § 101 and its holding that inventorship errors render patents permanently invalid when a co-inventor cannot be located undermines the harmonization of United States patent law with international patent standards that Congress intended to advance through the America Invents Act, by making inventorship errors more consequential to patent validity in the United States than under the patent laws of other major jurisdictions?

What happens next

The Court must decide whether to hear the petition. It was distributed for the Dec. 4, 2026 conference, but that does not guarantee action on that date.

Documents

1

Docket activity

9
  • New analysis added

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • AI analysis generated: Case Briefing

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Case data updated: documents, description, proceeding_type

    Nov 4, 2026 · supremecourt.gov

Show 4 more
  • Case data updated: documents, description, document_url, proceeding_type

    Oct 30, 2026 · supremecourt.gov

  • Case data updated: documents, description, document_url, proceeding_type

    Oct 19, 2026 · supremecourt.gov

  • Case data updated: documents, description, document_url, proceeding_type

    Sep 3, 2026 · supremecourt.gov

  • Brief added: Petition

    Sep 3, 2026 · Court records

More questions

3
What does Fortress say happened to the co-inventor's patent rights?
Fortress says the omitted co-inventor had assigned all patent rights to the patent owner.
What change in patent law does Fortress point to?
It argues Congress's repeal of 35 U.S.C. § 102(f) should matter to whether leaving out a co-inventor can make a patent invalid.
Has the Supreme Court scheduled oral argument?
No. Review has not been granted, and oral argument has not been scheduled.

Sources

Primary materials from the Court and the parties. Grounded in docket records and cited sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.

Checked Nov 12, 2026Methodology

Court records and filings