EXHIBIT 2 

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Date: May 26, 2020 

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE 

_____________ 

BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD 

____________ 

CIZION, LLC d/b/a VULCAN INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING, 

Petitioner 

v. 

KERR MACHINE CO., 

Patent Owner 

____________ 

Case PGR2020-00065 

Patent 10,591,070 

____________ 

PETITION FOR POST-GRANT REVIEW OF U.S. PATENT NO. 10,591,070 

UNDER 35 U.S.C. §§ 321-329 AND 37 C.F.R. § 42.200 ET SEQ. 

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(citing Ex. 1042 at 4 (defining “brake horsepower” and “output power” as “[t]he 

power of an engine as measured by a brake dynamometer”)). Thus, in light of the 

specification and claim language, a POSITA would have understood that the term 

“horsepower” means “horsepower/ brake horsepower.” Ex. 1012 ¶¶108-109. 

THE PRIOR ART 

State of the Art 

All purported points of novelty of the ’070 Patent were known in the art well 

before September 2015—the earliest possible alleged priority date of the ’070 

Patent.4

First, stuffing box sleeves have been used in fluid ends for decades, including 

as shown in yellow in U.S. Patent No. 2,713, 522 (July 19, 1955). 

 

4

 See supra n.2. 

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Ex. 1029, Fig. 2 (annotated); Ex. 1012 ¶¶42-43. 

Second, grooves and seals have been placed in interior walls of fluid flow 

devices before September 2015, including as shown in U.S. Patent Nos. 8,528,585 

(Sep. 10, 2013) and 7,828,053 (Nov. 9, 2010) to McGuire et al. Ex. 1012 ¶¶44-47. 

Ex. 1024, Fig. 6 (annotated). 

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Ex. 1025, Fig. 2 (annotated). Such groove and seal placement has been used for 

decades, as shown in U.S. Patent No. 2,756,960 (Jul. 31, 1956). Ex. 1012 ¶49; see 

also id. ¶48-50. 

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Ex. 1028, Fig. 1 (annotated), 1:60-62 (“Suitable sealing means, such as a groove and 

O-ring 27 may be provided in the inside of the orifice 9 as an auxiliary sealing 

means.”), 2:10-11; Ex. 1012 ¶49. 

Third, contrary to the declarations Kerr submitted during prosecution of an 

earlier application (supra Part V.B), techniques for machining grooves in the interior 

walls of fluid flow devices were well known in the art before September 2015. Ex. 

1012 ¶¶51-56 (describing groove milling tools which a POSITA would have 

appreciated could have been used to mill interior grooves in fluid ends). 

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Fourth, a POSITA, prior to September 2015, would have understood that the 

wear and erosion caused to fluid flow device housings by abrasive materials in the 

fluid could be mitigated by sacrificial sleeves, and that oftentimes, the packing and 

seals damaged by such abrasive materials would also cause wear and erosion of 

adjacent housings. Ex. 1012 ¶¶57-64. 

Blume ’097 (Ex. 1003) 

Blume ’097 discloses a fluid end assembly with a circumferential seal groove 

in the housing, and an elastomeric seal within the seal groove. Ex. 1003, Fig. 12B. 

Figure 12B further shows a packing cartridge housing (sleeve, yellow) that engages 

with the elastomeric seal in the housing and that has two “component rings” (blue) 

disposed therein. Id. The annotated figures below overlay Figure 12B onto Figure 

13 per the disclosure that the cartridge packing assembly of Figure 12B can be 

installed in plunger pump housing 50. 

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Id. at Fig. 13 overlay (overlaying Fig. 12B onto Fig. 13, per id. at 10:66-11:2); Ex. 

1012 ¶110. 

Blume ’012 (Ex. 1004) 

Blume ’012 discloses a fluid end assembly with the same groove, seal, and 

sleeve arrangement as Blume ’097. The annotated figures below overlay Figure 12B 

onto Figure 10A per the disclosure that the cartridge packing assembly of Figure 

12B can be “installed in Y-block plunger pump housings of the present invention.” 

Ex. 1004 at 10:10-13. 

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Ex. 1004, Fig. 10A overlay (overlaying Fig. 12B onto Fig. 10A, per id. at 4:33-37, 

4:62-65, 10:10-21). As annotated above, Blume ’012 also discloses an additional 

annular channel in the housing of the first conduit. Id. Fig. 10A; see also id. Fig. 

9A. Ex. 1012 ¶111.

Whaley (Ex. 1005) 

Whaley discloses a pump fluid end with a near-identical sleeve, seal, and 

housing arrangement to that of the ’070 Patent. A packing housing (tubular sleeve, 

yellow) has a set of seals (blue) disposed therein, and is engaged with a seal in an 

annular channel in the housing of the pump (red circle): 

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Ex. 1005, Fig. 1A (annotated and cropped). 

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