Opinion ID: 788221
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Caterpillar's Claims of Joint Inventorship of the '329 and '987 Patents

Text: 78 At trial, the court found in favor of Sturman on Caterpillar's claims seeking correction of inventorship to the '329 and '987 patents. Following detailed factual findings, see Caterpillar Opinion at slip. op. 5-21, the district court arrived at this legal conclusion based primarily on the fact that the specific materials identified by Maley and Tharp were not significant to the claimed spool valve technology. See id. at slip op. 44-45. While the district court agreed that Maley and Tharp's research into 52100 and 4140 steels was important for the poppet valve design developed under the JDA, it found the demands of the integrated spool valve claimed in the '329 patent to be far less. See id. at slip op. 41-42. In particular, the district court found that the spool valve did not require sixty pounds of latching force over a 0.002 inch air gap; it was a zero-air-gap system that, consequently, required much less latching force. See id. at slip op. 42-43. The district court also found that the '898 patent taught that substantially any magnetic material would latch in a system with zero air gap. See id. at slip op. 43-44. Thus, the court concluded: 79 Given the existence of the '898 patent, the existence of texts in the public domain separately detailing the physical and magnetic properties of these materials ... and the claimed design of the '329 patent, Caterpillar's selection of 52100 and 4140 was merely the exercise of ordinary skill in the art and therefore not a significant addition to the conception of the '329 patent. 80 Id. at slip op. 44. The district court therefore denied Caterpillar's co-inventorship claim. For the same reasons, it denied Caterpillar's request regarding the '987 patent. See id. 81 Inventorship is a question of law that we review without deference. See Sewall v. Walters, 21 F.3d 411, 415 (Fed. Cir.1994). We review the underlying findings of fact for clear error. See Hess v. Advanced Cardiovascular Sys., Inc., 106 F.3d 976, 980 (Fed.Cir.1997). 82 On appeal, Caterpillar contends that the district court erred in denying Caterpillar's claims that engineers Maley and Tharp were co-inventors of the '329 and '987 patents. With respect to the '329 patent, Caterpillar notes that the claims include the limitation a material with enough residual magnetism to maintain [the] spool position through residual magnetic latching. Moreover, Caterpillar argues, the preferred materials are the steels researched by Maley and Tharp. According to Caterpillar, because the '329 patent claims were only allowed after being amended to include the material with enough residual magnetism ... limitation, Maley and Tharp materially contributed to the claimed invention. In addition, Caterpillar argues, the district court applied an incorrect inventorship analysis. By finding that the contribution of Maley and Tharp was not significant as compared to the spool valve design, Caterpillar asserts, the district court failed to apply the proper test — whether the contribution was not insignificant in quality as measured against the whole. Caterpillar also argues that the district court incorrectly found that knowledge regarding which materials would work to achieve residual magnetism was public information that any person of ordinary skill in the art could apply in accordance with the teachings of Sturman's '898 patent. 83 With respect to the '987 patent, Caterpillar also asserts that Maley and Tharp made a not insignificant contribution. In particular, Caterpillar points out, Sturman amended its patent claims to cover residual magnetism in the spool and housing, arguing that the invention relied on hard steel, a feature Sturman learned from Maley and Tharp. Caterpillar notes, however, that Sturman argued over a rejection by saying that the use of hard steels was not taught in the prior art, which included Sturman's '898 patent. In light of the amendments and arguments, Caterpillar avers, the district court erred by finding that Maley and Tharp's contribution did not make a not insignificant contribution. 84 In response, Sturman argues that the district court correctly determined that Mr. Sturman is the sole inventor of the '329 and '987 patents. According to Sturman, the only contribution Maley and Tharp claim to have made — identifying 52100 and 4140 steel for residual magnetic latching — is not actually a claimed feature of either patent; thus, they do not qualify as co-inventors. And while the claims do generally recite a material with enough residual magnetism to maintain said spool in position (emphasis added), Sturman points out that Maley and Tharp never worked with Sturman on spool valves. In addition, Sturman avers, their materials search related to a fundamentally different type of design — a poppet valve that requires sixty pounds of latching force across a 0.002 inch air gap. With respect to spool valves, notes Sturman (echoing the district court's findings), the choice of materials would have been an exercise of ordinary skill after the teachings of the '898 patent; the lesser demands of such a valve did not require specific materials. 85 Patent issuance creates a presumption that the named inventors are the true and only inventors. Hess, 106 F.3d at 980. To rebut this presumption, a district court must find clear and convincing evidence that the alleged unnamed inventor was in fact a co-inventor before correcting inventorship under 35 U.S.C. § 256. Pannu v. Iolab Corp., 155 F.3d 1344, 1350 (Fed.Cir.1998). [T]o be a joint inventor, an individual must make a contribution to the conception of the claimed invention that is not insignificant in quality, when that contribution is measured against the dimension of the full invention Fina Oil & Chem. Co. v. Ewen, 123 F.3d 1466, 1473 (Fed.Cir.1997). This requires more than merely exercising ordinary skill in the art—a person will not be a co-inventor if he or she does no more than explain to the real inventors concepts that are well known [in] the current state of the art. Id. Finally, an alleged co-inventor's testimony cannot, standing alone, provide clear and convincing evidence. Ethicon, Inc. v. United States Surgical Corp., 135 F.3d 1456, 1460 (Fed.Cir.1998). Instead, an alleged co-inventor must supply evidence to corroborate his or her testimony. Id. 86 We agree with the district court that Caterpillar has not presented clear and convincing evidence to rebut the presumption that Mr. Sturman is the true and only inventor of the '329 and '987 patents. With respect to the '329 patent, we defer to the district court's findings of fact. In particular, we defer to its findings that: (1) neither Maley nor Tharp nor anyone else at Caterpillar had conceived of an integrated spool valve prior to being shown Mr. Sturman's Jumers Drawing, Caterpillar Opinion, ¶ 9, at slip op. 9; (2) Caterpillar's only claimed contribution to the '329 patent was the identification of 52100 and 4140 steel for residual magnetic latching, id. ¶ 10, at slip op. 9; (3) an integrated spool valve such as that claimed in the '329 patent has no air gap and requires significantly less than sixty pounds of latching, id. ¶ 11, at slip op. 10; (4) the contribution of suitable materials for the design claimed in the '329 patent was not significant, id. ¶ 13, at slip op. 11; (5) the '898 patent teaches that substantially any magnetic materials will work for residual magnetic latching in a zero-air-gap system such as the '329 patent, id. ¶ 19, at slip op. 14; and (6) various publicly available texts and patents describe the basic magnetic properties of 52100 and 4140 steel, id. ¶¶ 24-25, at slip op. 16-17. 87 On the basis of the district court's factual findings, we agree with its ultimate legal conclusion that Maley and Tharp should not be named as co-inventors of the '329 patent. As Sturman argues on appeal, the facts found by the district court demonstrate that they neither developed nor worked on an integrated spool valve under the JDA, that such a design does not require as much latching force, and, finally, that the teachings of the '898 patent together with information in the public domain regarding material properties would have made the choice of materials an exercise of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the use of 52100 and 4140 steels was an insignificant contribution and does not support their claims of co-inventorship. In addition, we agree with the district court's legal conclusion because the '329 patent claims do not mention either 52100 or 4140 steel and Fina Oil requires that one contribute something to the claimed invention. 123 F.3d at 1473. 88 Caterpillar's arguments to the contrary are not persuasive. First, we disagree with Caterpillar that Sturman's amendments to the '329 patent claims demonstrate that Maley and Tharp made an inventive contribution. The addition of the material with enough residual magnetism ... limitation is broad; it is not limited to the specific steels identified by Maley and Tharp. Moreover, as the district court found, when used in an integrated spool valve such as claimed in the '329 patent, the teachings of Sturman's '898 patent provide all that is necessary for one of skill in the art to identify the appropriate materials. We also reject Caterpillar's argument that the district court employed the incorrect legal standard. In considering whether Maley and Tharp contributed anything to the '329 patent, the district court specifically weighed the quality of their identification of 52100 and 4140 steel against the value of the whole design, concluding that the contribution was insignificant. 89 For the reasons discussed above, we also affirm the district court's decision to deny Maley and Tharp co-inventorship of the '987 patent. Specifically with respect to Caterpillar's arguments, we again note that the amendment of the claims was not relevant because the additional language broadly claimed residual magnetism and the '898 patent taught those skilled in the art to identify the appropriate materials. In addition, the distinct hard steel limitation is also irrelevant because the '898 patent teaches that substantially any magnetic materials will work for residual magnetic latching in a zero-air-gap system, whether hard or soft. 90