Opinion ID: 2648932
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The NetStalker Manual as Prior Art

Text: We have so far proceeded on the assumption that NetStalker constitutes a valid prior art reference. However, ESR contends that the Board erred in treating the Manual as prior art. Whether a document qualifies as a “printed publication” that is “available to the public” for the purposes of 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) is a question of law based on underlying findings of fact. See In re Hall, 781 F.2d 897, 899 (Fed. Cir. 1986). Under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1), prior art encompasses any matter that “was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.” This court has interpreted § 102 broadly, explaining that even relatively obscure documents qualify as prior art so long as the public has a means of accessing them. See, e.g., Hall, 781 F.2d at 899. Our leading case on public accessibility is In re Hall, 781 F.2d 897 (Fed. Cir. 1986). In Hall we concluded that “a single cataloged thesis in one university library” constitutes “sufficient accessibility to those interested in the art exercising reasonable diligence.” Id. at 900. Thereafter, in Constant v. Advanced Micro-Devices, Inc., we explained that “[a]ccessibility goes to the issue of whether interested members of the relevant public could obtain the information if they wanted to.” 848 F.2d 1560, 1569 (Fed. Cir. 1988). Therefore, “[i]f accessibility is proved, there is no requirement to show that particular members of the public actually received the information.” Id. In this case, the title page of the Manual contains an inscription dating it to May 1996. ESR, however, challenges the Manual’s claimed date of priority, arguing that 14 IN RE ENHANCED SECURITY RESEARCH, LLC the version of the Manual that the examiner relied on may not have been available in May 1996 and that there are indications that this version was a draft rather than a final document available to the public. However, Stephen Smaha, the Chief Executive Officer of the company that produces the NetStalker software, filed a declaration (“Smaha Declaration”) with the PTO averring that the version of the Manual before the examiner was available in May 1996. Smaha explained that “[m]embers of the public showing an interest in buying or licensing the NetStalker product could have obtained a copy of the manual by contacting Haystack or Network Systems Corporation and requesting one,” and, indeed, “[t]he NetStalker product was sold to or installed for approximately a dozen customers.” JA 9705 (footnote omitted). In view of the Manual’s inscription date, the Smaha Declaration, and evidence of NetStalker advertisements published in 1995, we conclude that substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that the Manual constituted publically-available prior art under § 102(a)(1). ESR also argues that the Manual should not be con- sidered in the circumstances of this case because it was missing pages. To support this proposition, ESR relies on Panduit Corp. v. Dennison Manufacturing Co., wherein this court explained that prior art “must be considered in its entirety, i.e., as a whole, including portions that would lead away from the invention in suit.” 810 F.2d 1561, 1568 (Fed. Cir. 1987). ESR contends that because the Manual was missing pages, it “cannot be considered as a whole” and therefore “should not be considered at all.” Appellant’s Br. at 26. Panduit did not involve a situation similar to the missing pages at issue here. In Panduit, we reversed a district court’s determination that a patent was obvious in light of the prior art. Panduit, 810 F.2d at 1565. We explained that this reversal was necessary because the district court “treated no claim, nor the entire prior art, IN RE ENHANCED SECURITY RESEARCH, LLC 15 nor any prior patent ‘as a whole,’ but [instead] selected bits and pieces from prior patents that might be modified to fit its legally incorrect interpretation of each claim as consisting of one word.” Panduit, 810 F.2d at 1587. Thus, Panduit explains that § 103 does not permit a court to stitch together an obviousness finding from discrete portions of prior art references without considering the references as a whole. That is not what occurred here. In addition to Panduit, ESR urges that the Manual of Patent Examining Procedures (“MPEP”) supports its argument. To the contrary, the MPEP contemplates partial submissions of prior art documents. The primary regulation governing reexamination, 37 C.F.R. § 1.510, permits parties to submit partial prior art references: under § 1.510(b)(3), a requester is only required to submit the “pertinent parts” of any non-English translation. Commenting on § 1.510(b)(3), § 2214 of the MPEP ex- plains that § 1.510(b)(3) requires the requester to submit “a translation of each non-English document (or a translation of at least the portion(s) relied upon).” Similarly, § 2218 of the MPEP, the very section of the MPEP that ESR argues supports its argument, only requires the submission of the “pertinent parts” of a non-English translation. Section 1.105 of the PTO regulations permits an examiner to request more information from a patentee 8 in 8 37 C.F.R. § 1.105 permits the examiner to request such information from: (1) Each inventor named in the application; (2) Each attorney or agent who prepares or prose- cutes the application; and (3) Every other person who is substantively involved in the preparation or prosecution of the application and who is asso- ciated with the inventor, the applicant, an assign16 IN RE ENHANCED SECURITY RESEARCH, LLC the course of reexamination if such information is necessary “to properly examine or treat the matter.” 37 C.F.R. § 1.105. With respect to such requests, the MPEP explains that “where the document is a bound text or a single article over 50 pages, the requirement may be met by providing copies of those pages that provide the particular subject matter indicated in the requirement, or where such subject matter is not indicated, the subject matter found in applicant’s disclosure.” MPEP § 704.14(a) ¶ 7.122. The version of the Manual that the Board relied on is over sixty pages long and appears to fall within this provision. We conclude that the PTO’s own rules permit the consideration of selected portions of prior art references so long as the missing portions are not necessary to fully understand the submitted portions. ESR cites no authority for the proposition that the PTO is categorically precluded from considering a reference if it is incomplete. Indeed, ESR agrees that partial documents can be considered “[if] there is clear evidence the missing pages would not impact those that are available.” Appellant’s Br. at 26. We agree that missing pages may sometimes be nec- essary for understanding a prior art reference. But nothing in the Manual here suggests that the missing pages were necessary to an understanding of the pertinent parts of the reference. The Manual’s table of contents as well as its page numbering suggest that it was missing three additional pages in chapter five and seven pages in chapter seven. Titled “Running NetStalker,” chapter five describes “the steps required to use the pre-defined configurations that are shipped with NetStalker and to start the NetStalker processes.” JA 307. The available pages teach how to determine the type of alarm the NetStalker ee, or anyone to whom there is an obligation to as- sign the application. 37 C.F.R. § 1.56(c). IN RE ENHANCED SECURITY RESEARCH, LLC 17 security system triggers and the alarm parameters. One of the alarm type is “Shun,” which automatically block unwanted communications. The table of contents and the list of figures indicate that the missing pages contained an explanation of what a user should do before running the NetStalker software, how to select a “scenario,” 9 how to configure alarm overrides, and how to run the software. 10 Nothing in the table of contents or the available chapter five pages suggests that the missing content contradicts the available portions of chapter five on which the PTO relied or other parts of the Manual. Chapter seven describes “how to manage and analyze historical router event data,” JA 329, the log of communications that have entered and exited the local network. 11 This chapter details the NetStalker software’s ability to 9 Chapter one of the NetStalker manual describes a number of possible scenarios involving attempted security breaches. These scenarios include breach attempts from bad hosts, IP spoofing, and false logins, among others. Therefore, the missing page on how to “select a scenario” most likely explains how to configure the software to detect different types of breach attempts. 10 The table of contents states that the missing pages are titled: “Running NetStalker,” “Before you run NetStalker,” “To Select a Scenario,” “To Configure Alarm Handler Overrides,” and “To Run NetStalker.” JA 271. The missing figure in chapter five is titled: “Configure Misuse Detector Window.” JA 273. 11 The missing pages in chapter seven are titled: “Schedule Log Manager,” “Log Events Record Format & Sample Data,” and “Analyzing Log Files.” JA 272. The five missing figures are: “Schedule Log Manager Window,” “Schedule Crontab Entries window,” Event Data Available Window,” Interactive Alarm Window,” and “NetStalker window.” JA 273-74. 18 IN RE ENHANCED SECURITY RESEARCH, LLC save all router events and establish a “hierarchy of locations” for storing them. JA 330. Although ESR’s security device must also manage historical data, the limitations of the amended ’236 patent claims do not address the management of historical data. 12 Therefore, this chapter does not appear to be significant to the amended ’236 patent claims. 13 ESR claims that the missing sections were necessary because they could: “(1) clarify the often cryptic disclosure in the NetStalker Manual and thus alter its meaning; or (2) disparage or teach away from application of the relied upon teachings to the ʼ236 invention.” Appellant’s Br. at 29. However, ESR fails to point to anything in the Manual that might support this conclusion. When the panel pressed ESR at oral argument to explain how the missing 12 Instead, claim 5 simply states that “the controller device examines communications incoming to the computer system for code known to be associated with attempted security breaches.” Amended ’236 patent claim 5. The specification explains that “in order for the ‘look for known patterns’ operation to be successful, the INSD might require some knowledge of the configuration of the LAN . . . . This data can be stored in the memory of the INSD.” ’236 patent col. 6 ll. 57-61. 13 The examiner did cite chapter seven for the proposition that “[a] threshold (factor . . . number of attempts) may be applied to a misuse signature, as a second form of analysis that also requires examination of a series of more than one packet.” JA 9896. After stating this proposition, the examiner wrote “See Chapter 7 which describes how to manage and analyze historical (over time) router event data.” JA 9896. This complete quotation reveals that the examiner merely cited chapter seven to show that NetStalker is capable of examining more than one packet. The Board did not rely on chapter seven at all. IN RE ENHANCED SECURITY RESEARCH, LLC 19 pages might plausibly teach away from the ’236 invention, ESR postulated that the missing pages “could have disparaged the use of a user-defined security level to trigger an alarm.” See Oral Argument at 6:36, available at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/oral-argumentrecordings/13-1114/all. This scenario is both speculative and highly implausible: a manual would not tell users how they can utilize the product in a particular way, only to then tell them not to do so. As the examiner explained, “[w]hen the source is reviewed as a whole, there is no evidence whatsoever that the missing pages detract in any way from the NetStalker manual’s disclosures and teachings.” JA 9157. 14 The Board reached a similar conclusion, and we agree. 14 Had the missing pages been necessary to a full understanding of the software, the examiner, of course, could not have relied on the Manual without securing the missing pages. In Star Fruits S.N.C. v. United States, 393 F.3d 1277 (Fed. Cir. 2005), we held that the examiner could request further information from the applicant, and 37 C.F.R. § 1.156, see supra note 8, permits requests to others associated with the applicant. However, the relevant regulations do not provide a mechanism through which the PTO may request further information from a third party. This is clear from the history of the America Invents Act’s new Third Party Preissuance Submission procedure, codified at 35 U.S.C. § 122(e). The final report of comments from the public notice period for the regulations reveals that commenters were concerned by the inability of examiners to request further information from third party submitters. In response to this concern, the PTO simply stated that [a]n examiner cannot . . . request additional in- formation from a party who makes a third-party submission. The Office does not believe there is a 20 IN RE ENHANCED SECURITY RESEARCH, LLC