Opinion ID: 480649
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Obviousness, Sec. 103

Text: 17 The district court stated that the Hutzenlaub prior art patent discloses a web processing apparatus which moves a web from a supply roll through a slitting station and then winds the processed web on a storage roll while 'maintaining a constant controlled tension on the web in the processing region'--i.e. without stretching the web, or, in other words, wherein the forces necessary to prestretching are asidiously [sic] avoided. Kaufman argued that with several (substantial) structural changes, Hutzenlaub could be a film-driven pre-stretch device. The court held that it would not have been obvious to one skilled in the art to take the Hutzenlaub powered device designed to maintain film without changes in tension and make any of the complex changes to it as suggested by Kaufman to produce a film-driven prestretch device. 18 The district court's findings of fact are not clearly erroneous; it properly found what Hutzenlaub discloses and the differences between it and the claimed invention. The invention claimed in the '920 patent stretches the film before the film is wrapped on the load and does so by driving the stretching rollers solely from the pull of the web, the downstream roller being driven faster than the upstream one. The device in Hutzenlaub maintains constant minimal tension on the web so that the web properly moves through the slitter device and thus does not suggest the claimed apparatus wherein the stretching tension is high in order to stretch the film beyond its yield point before it is wrapped around the load. 19 Gore, virtually to the exclusion of the other patents, is the most contested prior art reference on appeal. It discloses a process for producing a tetrafluoroethylene polymer (Teflon) sheet material in a porous form, for use in a variety of articles. The polymer in paste form is converted into a shaped article by known methods and is then expanded by simultaneous stretching and heating. One apparatus schematically disclosed in Gore stretches Teflon film by feeding it onto a heated roller where the film is preheated to the temperature at which it will be expanded. The film is then fed onto a second roller which can be driven or is driven, according to the specification, faster than the first roller so that the film is stretched in the gap between the two rollers, thus making the film expand. The relative speeds of the two rollers determine the amount of stretch and thus the amount of expansion of the Teflon film. The specification, however, does not disclose what drives the rollers. 20 The court found, based on expert testimony and an apparatus demonstration at trial, that the rollers in Gore are not film driven: If they were film-driven, rollers 16 and 17 could not be controlled to the same peripheral or surface speed as required in Example 5 of the Gore '566 patent unless the stretch level and temperature were controlled or friction were introduced in such a way as to make the entire process unworkable. The court also held that there is no technological reason that the inventor would have made rollers 15 and 16 film driven, especially in the light of the incredible complications this would have cause [sic] for his specialized purposes. In any event, it is clear from a reading of the Gore patent that nowhere does it disclose or suggest that the stretching rollers, or either of them, are to be driven by the movement of the film through the apparatus rather than by conventional means such as gears, belts, or chains connected to the roll shafts. As we have said above, it is stated that roller 16, the downstream roller, can be driven and that it is driven, the normal construction of which would be mechanically driven. 21 Kaufman has shown no clear error in these findings, the argument of its counsel being inadequate to sustain Kaufman's burden on appeal. Where the record contains ample evidence supporting these findings, we are not left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. See Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, N.C., 470 U.S. 564, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985). Granted, Gore does not expressly disclose how he drives his stretching rollers, but where, as here, there is evidence of record that web-driven rollers would not have been used because of a variety of factors such as temperature, degree of expansion, dwell time, spacing between the rollers, and the very different nature of Teflon film than that used in the '920 patent, we cannot find error in the judgment of the trial court which heard the evidence and saw the demonstration. 22 With regard to the Thimon reference which Kaufman argues on appeal, apparently as an afterthought, it is clear that we are asked to review it de novo. We cannot do that. Kaufman does not once cite any support in the record, other than the reference itself, for its proposition about what Thimon discloses or how little it differs from the claimed invention. Moreover, nowhere does Kaufman allege clear error in the district court's findings regarding this reference, and we perceive none. 23 Seeing no reason to disagree with the district court's legal conclusion, based upon the findings of fact made as part of the analysis of obviousness under Graham v. John Deere, 383 U.S. 1, 86 S.Ct. 684, 15 L.Ed.2d 545, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that the claimed invention would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time it was made, in view of the references as a whole, we affirm the court's holding of nonobviousness. See Lindemann Machinenfabrik v. American Hoist and Derrick Co., 730 F.2d 1452, 221 USPQ 481 (Fed.Cir.1984). 24 Having found that Kaufman failed to meet its burden of showing obviousness in view of prior art by clear and convincing evidence, we need not consider Lantech's additional rebuttal evidence of nonobviousness.