Opinion ID: 806478
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Content of the Zamierowski Reference

Text: The parties agree that the Zamierowski reference’s method is utilized on “wounds” within the district court’s construction, and discloses placing a screen means into a wound, sealing the wound by placing a membrane with an adhesive coating over the wound, and connecting a tube from under the membrane to a vacuum source. J.A. 28. This system can then be used to either drain from or inject fluid into the wound. J.A. 10063. S&N argues, and the district court found, that the Zamierowski reference also disclosed treating wounds with negative pressure. JMOL Order at 27–28. During trial, Wake Forest argued that this reference does not disclose healing wounds with negative pressure KINETIC CONCEPTS v. SMITH & NEPHEW 34 because it neither disclosed a seal capable of maintaining negative pressure on a wound, nor disclosed treating the wound towards a selected stage of healing as required by the asserted method claims. The district court concluded that Wake Forest’s first argument was incorrect because it found that the patent claims do not require healing to be accomplished by negative pressure. Id. at 27. In the alternative, the district court concluded that the Zamierowski reference met this requirement because fluid is removed from the wound with negative pressure and removal of fluid enabled healing, so “healing” was “accomplished by the negative pressure.” Id. at 27–28. The district court was incorrect with respect to its determination that the claims of the asserted patents do not require wounds to be healed by negative pressure. First, in the Blue Sky appeal, we concluded that all of the claims of the ’081 patent asserted in the present litigation require the use of negative pressure to treat a “wound.” 554 F.3d at 1015 (“[E]ach of the asserted claims in both the ’081 and ’643 patents requires using ‘reduced’ or ‘negative’ pressure to ‘treat a wound’ or ‘facilitate the healing of a wound . . . .”). Thus, we have already construed the claims to include this limitation and that legal conclusion was binding on the district court and is binding on this panel. The specifications of both the ’081 and ’651 patents support our conclusion in Blue Sky, moreover. E.g., ’081 patent col.2 ll.45–49 (“The present invention includes . . . applying a negative pressure to a wound over an area sufficient to promote migration of epithelial and subcutaneous tissue toward the wound, with the negative pressure being maintained for a time sufficient to facilitate closure of the wound.”); ’651 patent col.2 ll.61–64 (“[A] wound treatment apparatus is provided for treating a wound by applying reduced pressure . . . to the wound 35 KINETIC CONCEPTS v. SMITH & NEPHEW . . . .”). And, before the PTO, the patentees distinguished their claims from the prior art by asserting that references “do not disclose or suggest ‘an appliance for administering a reduced pressure treatment to a wound’; ‘an apparatus/method for treating a wound’ with reduced pressure.” J.A. 5501 (’651 patent); see also J.A. 5502 (’651 patent); J.A. 8267 (’081 patent) (Unlike the prior art, “[the] claimed invention is directed to a device configured to create and maintain negative pressure on a wound site . . . for the purpose of administering a negative pressure treatment to the wound.”). Finally, S&N never argued before the district court that the asserted claims did not require this limitation. In light of our prior holding in Blue Sky, the language of the specification, and the patentee’s statements made during reexamination, we find that each of the asserted claims requires the use of negative pressure to heal or treat wounds. With respect to the district court’s alternative holding, whether the prior art discloses the limitations of a particular claim is a question of fact to be determined by the jury, and Wake Forest presented ample evidence that the Zamierowski reference does not disclose the use of negative pressure to heal wounds. J.A. 21453:19–25; J.A. 22667:24–70:10; J.A. 22866:19–68:12. In support of its argument that the Zamierowski reference does not disclose a seal capable of maintaining negative pressure, Wake Forest presented testimony that the reference does not create a seal within the meaning of the patent because it uses only a tight liquid seal that has air gaps. J.A. 21472:19–73:11; J.A. 22668:25–69:4. This testimony is consistent with the reference, which indicates that the dressing material is “breathable semipermeable” and the seal is “relatively liquid-tight.” J.A. 10068; J.A. 10070. With respect to the contention that “healing” is not accomplished as contemplated by the KINETIC CONCEPTS v. SMITH & NEPHEW 36 patents, Wake Forest’s expert testified that the Zamierowski reference failed to disclose maintaining negative pressure until the wound has progressed to a selected stage of healing. J.A. 22456:24–58:1; J.A. 22669:5–8. Zamierowski, instead, uses a tubing system to medicate and drain wounds, and thereby “promote[ ] healing” generally, J.A. 10061–63; J.A. 10074; it does not disclose the use and maintenance of negative pressure on a wound site to facilitate wound closure and thereby promote wound healing, as do the patents. And, unlike the system specified in the patents, Zamierowski’s system is to be removed once the process of medication and draining has been completed. J.A. 10073. Indeed, the inventor of the Zamierowski device testified that the inventors of the ’651 and ’081 patents invented the use of negative pressure for wound therapy and that he had not. J.A. 22571:13–17; see also J.A. 22571:10–12 (Zamierowski inventor indicating that his contribution to the commercial embodiment of the asserted patents is primarily the methods of attaching the “the rigid conduit to the flimsy film”). Because the jury concluded that S&N failed to establish that the patents were obvious, we must assume that the jury found Wake Forest’s expert to be credible and persuasive on this point. In light of this assumption, there is substantial evidence to support the factual finding that the Zamierowski reference does not disclose a sealing means capable of maintaining negative pressure, or maintenance of pressure until the wound has progressed toward a selected stage of healing.