Opinion ID: 4569334
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Claim Broadening

Text: On cross-appeal, HP also argues that claim 6 and the other asserted claims are invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 305 because Network-1 improperly broadened claim 6 through the addition of claim 15 and 16 in the ’401 reexamination. We disagree and affirm the district court’s judgment that the asserted claims were not improperly broadened.
A patentee is not permitted to enlarge the scope of a patent claim during reexamination. 35 U.S.C. § 305. The broadening inquiry under § 305 involves two steps: (1) “analyz[ing] the scope of the claim prior to reexamination” and (2) “compar[ing] it with the scope of the claim subsequent to reexamination.” Creo Prods., Inc. v. Presstek, Inc., 305 F.3d 1337, 1344 (Fed. Cir. 2002). A claim “is broader in scope than the original claims if it contains within its scope any conceivable apparatus or process which would not have infringed the original patent.” See Predicate Logic, Inc. v. Distributive Software, Inc., 544 F.3d 1298, 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2008). “Whether amendments made during reexamination enlarge the scope of a claim is a matter of claim construction,” Creo Prods., 305 F.3d at 1344, which we review de novo, while giving deference to subsidiary factual determinations, Teva Pharms., 574 U.S. at 331.
HP argues that dependent claims 15 and 16 added during the ’401 reexamination resulted in improper claim broadening of claim 6 and asserted dependent claims. In relevant part, prior to reexamination, claim 6 of the ’930 patent was construed in two separate district court actions to require the “secondary power source” to be Case: 18-2338 Document: 73 Page: 22 Filed: 09/24/2020 22 NETWORK-1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY physically separate from the “main power source.” See J.A. 59–62; see also J.A. 40–42. Subsequently, during the ’401 reexamination, Network-1 added claims 15 and 16, which depended from claim 6 and respectively added the limitations that the secondary power source “is the same source of power” and “is the same physical device” as the main power source. ’930 patent, Ex Parte Reexamination Certificate, col. 1 ll. 39–44. After claims 15 and 16 issued at the conclusion of the ’401 reexamination, HP moved in the underlying district court action for summary judgment of invalidity under 35 U.S.C. § 305 for improper claim broadening. Network-1 subsequently filed a statutory disclaimer under 35 U.S.C. § 253 of claims 15 and 16. See J.A. 5075. Ultimately, the district court denied HP’s motion, finding that claim 6 had not been improperly broadened. J.A. 59–62; see also J.A. 40–42. In the same order, the district court also construed the claim term “secondary power source” consistent with the earlier district court actions to require that the “secondary power source be physically separate from the driving points of the main power source.” J.A. 52–53; see also J.A. 32–33. We do not agree that claim 6 is invalid for improper broadening based on the addition of claims 15 and 16. Our broadening inquiry begins and ends with claim 6. Claim 6 was not itself amended during the ’401 reexamination. And as HP admits, “[t]he district court’s construction [after reexamination] is consistent with how the [earlier district] courts construed this term [pre-reexamination].” Appellee’s Br. 15. Neither party appeals that construction. There can be no dispute, therefore, that the scope of claim 6 was not changed as a result of the ’401 reexamination. Where the scope of claim 6 has not changed, there has not been improper claim broadening, and HP’s argument fails. See Creo Prods., 305 F.3d at 1344. Case: 18-2338 Document: 73 Page: 23 Filed: 09/24/2020 NETWORK-1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. HEWLETT-PACKARD 23 COMPANY Furthermore, our precedent is clear that “dependent claims cannot broaden an independent claim from which they depend.” Enzo Biochem Inc. v. Applera Corp., 780 F.3d 1149, 1156–57 (Fed. Cir. 2017). Thus, even were dependent claims 15 and 16 broader than unamended, independent claim 6, the remedy would not be to find claim 6 invalid as broadened, but to invalidate added claims 15 and 16. See MBO Labs., Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co., 602 F.3d 1306, 1319 (Fed. Cir. 2010). We need not determine whether claims 15 and 16 are invalid because they are not asserted and because those claims have already been canceled through Network-1’s statutory disclaimer. Despite the clarity of our caselaw, HP principally relies on ArcelorMittal France v. AK Steel Corp., 786 F.3d 885 (Fed. Cir. 2015), to argue that claim 6 was improperly broadened and should be invalidated. In that case, we concluded that the patentee had improperly broadened independent claim 1 through reissue by adding a number of dependent claims. See ArcelorMittal, 786 F.3d at 890. HP quotes our explanation that one of the new dependent claims had “the practical effect of expanding the scope of claim 1 to cover claim scope expressly rejected by a previous claim construction ruling.” Appellee’s Br. 70 (quoting ArcelorMittal, 786 F.3d at 890). HP also emphasizes that in ArcelorMittal, we held invalid for improper broadening under 35 U.S.C. § 251 not only the newly added claims but also claim 1 itself. Appellee’s Br. 70. HP argues that the facts in ArcelorMittal are “nearly identical” to this case, and that claim 6 is invalid because claims 15 and 16 have “the practical effect of expanding” the scope of claim 6. Id. HP is wrong. ArcelorMittal is inapposite. In that case, the patentee had stipulated that all reissued claims, including claim 1, were broader than the original claims. ArcelorMittal, 786 F.3d at 890. Thus, in ArcelorMittal, there was no dispute that the claims had been broadened. Furthermore, we did not hold, as HP suggests, see Appellee’s Br. 70–71, that a Case: 18-2338 Document: 73 Page: 24 Filed: 09/24/2020 24 NETWORK-1 TECHNOLOGIES, INC. v. HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY dependent claim added during reissue (or reexamination) may broaden and therefore invalidate an unamended, independent claim. To the contrary, we rejected “the argument that a defective reissue application invalidates . . . [the] original claims carried over from the original application.” ArcelorMittal, 786 F.3d at 891 (quoting Hewlett– Packard Co. v. Bausch & Lomb, Inc., 882 F.2d 1556, 1566 (Fed. Cir. 1989)). Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s conclusion that claim 6 and the other asserted claims are not invalid due to improper claim broadening.