A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently asked the full court to decide a case testing a patent owner's right to control a patented item after selling it—in this case, a printer ink cartridge.

The panel heard oral argument on March 6, but never ruled. The full court issued the order for en banc review on Tuesday, and asked for additional briefing regarding the so-called patent-exhaustion doctrine, also called “first-sale doctrine.”

One question involves the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, in which the justices held that a lawful buyer of copyrighted goods made outside the United States may resell those goods in this country. The Federal Circuit will examine whether, in light of Kirtsaeng, it should hold that foreign sales of a patented item exhausts U.S. patent rights.