What does “diligence” mean?
After conceiving an idea, the inventor must generally make a conscious effort to reduce the conceived idea to practice, whether by filing a patent application disclosing the invention or building the invention. This “conscious effort” to reduce a conceived idea to practice is diligence. There is no single objective standard for establishing diligence. Rather, the determination of whether an inventor diligently reduced an invention to practice is made on the basis of the specific facts and circumstances surrounding the inventor’s activities relating to reducing the invention to practice after conception. It is important to understand that an inventor is not required to rush or take the most efficient path toward reducing a conceived idea to practice. Also, after an inventor has achieved an actual reduction to practice, the inventor need not show diligence from the actual reduction to practice date to the filing date of a patent application because an inventor is under no duty to file a
