Opinion ID: 466567
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ben Cao Gang Mu

Text: 19 Ben Cao Gang Mu (Ben Cao) is a treatise on Chinese Medicine published in Hong Kong, in Chinese, in 1930, 1954, and 1965, but was originally written by Li-Shi-Zhen who lived during the Ming Dynasty. 3 Like the Grand Dictionary, only a portion of the Chinese text Ben Cao is in evidence and that portion was translated by Mr. Cao and Dr. Wei for purposes of this litigation. The district court relied upon Ben Cao because it discusses xiao shi, which the translation of Ben Cao states is niter and associates the ability to cure tooth pain (Ya Tong or Ya Teng). 20 It is important to note, and the district court appeared to accept as fact, that the portion of the Grand Dictionary relied upon was compiled during the Ming Dynasty of the 13th to 15th centuries in Ben Cao Gang Mu so that the relevant portion of the Grand Dictionary is substantially a restatement of Ben Cao with some modification by an unidentified author. The court stated that these two references quote the same Ming Dynasty source as labeling KNO3 for tooth pain. 21 The Ben Cao translation is entitled Xiao-Shi (Niter) and refers to the same Other names for this substance listed in the Grand Dictionary. With respect to the quoted sections above, the Ben Cao translation is nearly verbatim. It has this to say about tooth pain: 22 Da Ming states: It cures summer infections and the catching of colds, acute enteritis with severe vomiting, exertion thru excessive sexual activity and black jaundice, chronic abdominal pain, conjunctivitis, headache and tooth pain (Ya-Tong or Ya Teng). 23 Hodosh argues that summary judgment was inappropriate; issues of fact as to the meanings of xiao shi and ya tong remain because a skilled dental researcher would surely seek and obtain a complete translation of the Grand Dictionary and of the other ancient Chinese references and would read those references carefully. Hodosh also argues that the ancient references should be dismissed because a person skilled in the art would find them incredible and would regard them as a quagmire of medical and dental nonsense. It therefore takes issue with the court's holding quoted below which apparently precluded inquiry into the accuracy of the references by one skilled in the art: 24 [A]ttacks upon the translation leading up to the prior art reference embodied in the Grand Dictionary of Chinese Medicine and Drugs, ... or upon Chinese medicine as a whole, ... are not here regarded as particularly pertinent, since they require skill beyond the scope of the experienced researcher in dental fields.... 25 Hodosh relies heavily on its expert's, Dr. Shklar's, testimony about the Chinese references: [T]hey represent in modern terms, materials that are rarely comprehensible and frequently contradictory in their literal terms. The materials are largely seen by contemporary medical scientists as absurd; no serious medical researcher would waste his or her time with them. 4 Hodosh also contests this holding by the district court: 26 Nor, if it is true that KNO3 alleviates tooth sensitivity, is such reference in the prior art rebutted by the existence of errors in the reference such as, for example, the claim that KNO3 is a cure for exertion through excessive sexual activity. Whatever the merits of the other aspects of the Chinese references, the fact that they reveal KNO3 to be a cure for ya tong is what is dispositive here. The reference clearly discloses such function of potassium nitrate, albeit in the context of otherwise incredible, and even erroneous descriptions of the compound's quality. 27 With respect to the specific meaning of xiao shi as used in these references, both Dr. Shklar and Hodosh's other expert, Mr. Yen, a professional translator of Chinese and English languages, stated that the compiler of the Grand Dictionary erred in associating potassium nitrate or niter with xiao shi. Mr. Yen states that he 28 was not able to render one single precise version because various dictionaries contain different and even conflicting definitions. For example, Source of Words, a Chinese language dictionary, published by Commercial Press, Taiwan, which has editions dating back to 1915, defines Xiao-Shi as Mang-Xiao on page 1255, and under Mang-Xiao on page 1770, reference is made that Mang-Xiao is Liu-Suen-Na, and on page 1523 Liu-Suen-Na is defined as sodium sulfate (Na2 SO4 10H2 0). 29 Mr. Yen also stated that Xiao-Shi could be more than one material and that more than one material may be represented by the term 'Xiao-Shi'. Dr. Shklar concurred: 30 In my opinion, therefore, the answer to the question: What was Xiao-Shi, is that it represented many different materials which cannot be identified with certainty. 31    32    33 Thus, these Exhibits did not describe potassium nitrate to one skilled in the art any more than any of the hundreds of salts, ores and oxides that possess some of the enumerated properties. 34 In addition, Dr. Shklar stated: It is insufficient to simply state, as the Block translator does, that 'Xiao-Shi' is 'niter,' and then cite a modern dictionary to 'establish' that 'niter' is potassium nitrate. With respect to both the Grand Dictionary and Ben Cao, he stated that the translator appears to have inserted the term 'niter' into the text where the phrase 'consumer of stones' actually belongs. 35 Block's arguments, on the other hand, in part based on the short affidavit by Mr. Wei, substantially follow the district court's opinion. Block also challenges the competence of Hodosh's experts stating that they either had no knowledge or training in the Chinese language or Chinese medicine or were unfamiliar with dentistry or medicine generally. Block also emphasizes that the Chinese references correctly disclose many of potassium nitrate's characteristics, like burning with a violet flame, useability for making signal fires and gun powder, and its water solubility; these three properties of xiao shi in the Chinese references definitely confirm, according to Block, that xiao shi is potassium nitrate, KNO3 . B. The European Prior Art 36 This art is contained in six references and was not relied upon to any significant degree by Block or the district court. Hodosh scarcely mentions it on appeal, instead preferring to show the existence of genuine issues of material fact with respect to the Chinese references. After concluding that using potassium nitrate to cure tooth pain would have been obvious from Rosenthal in view of the Chinese art, the court stated: Such holding is strengthened by the European prior art which, while ambiguous because of the several conflicting definitions in the term 'niter,' at least suggest to one skilled in the art that potassium nitrate ought to be tried as a cure for tooth pain in general. 37 Block submitted no affidavits that addressed the substance of the European references. Hodosh's Dr. Shklar, on the other hand, stated why this art, part of the humors, spirits and Alchemy of the Dark Ages having whatever medicinal effect they did by virtue of their use of wine, opium, or other narcotic substances, would have been questioned by one skilled in the art. He specifically contends that Block's translation of nitre is erroneous: it is common knowledge that these terms meant sodium carbonate and/or sodium carbonate-sodium bicarbonate mixture.... 38 To afford a glimpse of the nature of these references, an interesting and typical excerpt, one quoted by the district court, based upon a statement by the long since deceased French surgeon Guy de Chauliac reads that a mixture of 'cuttlebone, small white sea shells, pumice, burnt stag's horn, nitre, alum, rock salt, burnt roots of iris, aristolochia, and reeds' could create an effective dentifrice. (District court's emphasis.) Three of the European references are based on that statement. The district court noted the others: 39 Additionally, a 1693 treatise by the British Professor of Physics William Salmon states that nitrum held in the Mouth ... immediately helps the Toothach, if burnt and used in a Dentifrice, it cleanses and whitens the Teeth. ... Similarly, a reference work by Hardianus a Mynsicht, translated into English in 1682, describes a mixture, including nitre as a tincture for the toothache. ... Finally, Pliny the Elder, in his Historie of the World, The Second Tome, translated into English in 1601, describes the use of nitre to easeth the toothach, if the mouth and gums be washed therwith, or if burned, as a dentifrice. [Reference to Exhibits omitted.] 40 With this description of both the Chinese and European references, and of what they represent as a whole, in hand, we consider the proper application of the Graham standards and their effect upon the propriety of summary judgment in this case. See generally Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17, 86 S.Ct. 684, 693-94, 15 L.Ed.2d 545 (1966); Panduit Corp. v. Dennison Manufacturing Co., 774 F.2d 1082, 227 USPQ 337 (Fed.Cir.1985).