Opinion ID: 3066522
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: VastFame’s Invalidity Defense

Text: As an alternative argument, VastFame asks this court not merely to vacate but to reverse the Commission’s final determination if we find, without further need of evidence, that claim 15 of the ’087 patent is invalid. The Commission declined to entertain VastFame’s invalidity defense; it has not ruled on the merits of this defense. In Beloit Corp. v. Valmet Oy, 742 F.2d 1421, 1423 (Fed. Cir. 1984), this court held that it “does not sit to review what the Commission has not decided.” Accordingly, the court will not consider the merits of the validity defense that was neither heard nor decided by the Commission. Instead, having determined that the Commission erred in excluding the validity challenge, we remand the case to the Commission for consideration of VastFame’s invalidity defense in the first instance.