Law360, New York ( December 10, 2014, 10:57 AM EST) -- The Federal Circuit's 2011 en banc decision in Therasense Inc. v. Becton Dickinson & Co. "tighten[ed] the standards for finding both intent and materiality" to establish inequitable conduct "in order to redirect a doctrine that has been overused to the detriment of the public."[1] Many commentators suggested that inequitable conduct would be nearly impossible to prove under the new standards. However, a review of the Federal Circuit opinions implementing the new stringent Therasense standards shows that the Federal Circuit is applying the clear error review standard to the key underlying factual issues of materiality and intent. While some unresolved issues remain, the court is allowing the inequitable conduct sanction to be imposed on reprehensible conduct, while rejecting weaker inequitable conduct claims that the court sought to deter in Therasense....