Month: February 2016

America Invents Act, Anticipation/Obvious, Appeals, BRI Standard, Broadest Reasonable Interpretation, Claim Construction, Court of Appeals Fed Circuit, Federal Circuit, Inter Partes Review, PTAB Procedure, USPTO

CAFC Vacates a PTAB Decision Due To Faulty Claim Construction

By Reza Mollaaghababa
In a rare case of disagreeing with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) vacated and remanded a PTAB decision invalidating claims 10-25 of PPC Broadband, Inc.’s U.S. Patent No. 8,323,060, which were challenged in an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding by Corning Optical Communications RF, LLC. (IPR2013-00342).

The challenged claims of PPC’s patent relate to a coaxial cable connector and require that the cable connector include “a continuity member having a nut contact portion positioned to electrically contact the nut and positioned to reside around an external portion of the connector body when the connector is assembled …” The Board held that the broadest reasonable construction of “reside around” was “in the immediate vicinity of; near.” Based on this construction, the Board concluded that the claims were obvious in view of the references cited by the petitioner, Corning, against the claims.

The Board reached this construction by relying on the broadest dictionary definition of the term “around.” In contrast, PPC (the patent owner) had proposed that the broadest reasonable construction of the term “reside around” in light of the claims and the specification is “encircle or surround.”

The CAFC sided with the patent owner and held that in the context of the patent the Board’s construction was not reasonable. The CAFC explained that “[t]he fact that ‘around’ has multiple dictionary meanings does not mean that all of these meanings are reasonable interpretations in light of the specification.” The CAFC further stated that all of the claims of the patent are directed to coaxial cable connectors and the components of these connectors partially or wholly encircle the inner electrical conductor. The CAFC emphasized that “[g]iven the context of this technology, it seems odd to construe the term ‘reside around’ without recognizing the context of its use in terms of the coaxial cable at issue.” Continue reading “CAFC Vacates a PTAB Decision Due To Faulty Claim Construction” →

Anticipation/Obvious, Appeals, Federal Circuit, Inter Partes Review, USPTO

Battle Between Sneaker Makers Nike and Adidas Will Go Another Round

By Alicia Palladino
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided an appeal earlier this month in a long-running battle between footwear manufacturers Nike and Adidas that gives Patent Owner Nike a partial (and perhaps fleeting) victory. The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Office decision in-part, vacated-in-part and remanded the case for further proceedings.

On November 28, 2012, Adidas AG petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) to institute an Inter Partes Review (“IPR”) to invalidate all of the claims of Nike’s 7,347,011 patent. (IPR2013-00067). After a trial was instituted, Nike did not file a Patent Owner Response but instead filed a Motion to Amend, requesting the Board cancel claims 1-46 and add new substitute claims 47-50. The Board granted the motion to cancel all of the original patent claims but denied the motion as to the proposed new claims 47-50, stating that Nike provided only a conclusory statement that the proposed claims were patentable which failed to persuade the Board to grant the motion. In the alternative, the Board also stated that Nike failed to prove patentability of the substitute claims over the prior art references identified by Petitioner Adidas. Nike appealed the decision. Nike, Inc. v. Adidas AG, No. 2014-1719, 2016 BL 38897 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 11, 2016).

Under § 316(e), the Petitioner carries the burden of proving that the patented claims under attack in an IPR proceeding are unpatentable. Nike argued that this burden also applies to new substitute claims submitted by the patent owner in a Motion to Amend. In other words, Nike argued that it does not carry the burden of proving that its new substitute claims were patentable. However, the Federal Circuit did not agree and concluded that section 316(e) does not keep the burden of proving unpatentability with the Petitioner for new substitute claims. Id. at 4. Accordingly, Nike carries the affirmative duty to justify why the newly drafted claims, which had never been evaluated by the USPTO, should be entered. Id. at 5.

However, the Federal Circuit concluded that at least one of reasons advanced by the Board for denying the Motion to Amend as to Nike’s substitute claims was improper. The court concluded that the statement used by Nike, that the proposed substitute claims were patentable over the prior art of record and over the prior art not of record but known to the patent owner, was adequate to address “known prior art” not of record in the proceeding absent an allegation of conduct violating the duty of candor. Id. at 21. Continue reading “Battle Between Sneaker Makers Nike and Adidas Will Go Another Round” →