Opinion ID: 209505
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The double patenting issue

Text: The PTO had consistently found that the claims of the Natta '687 patent are patentably distinct from the claims of the '987 patent. In both the examination and the reexamination, the examiners found that the classes of copolymers and catalysts in the '687 claims were patentably distinct from those claimed in the '987 patent. The PTO agreed that the subject matter claimed in the Natta '687 patent is not an obvious variant of the '987 claims. In the prosecution history of the Natta '687 patent, Dr. Natta had explained the issues involving the higher olefins of the '687 invention: [T]he presence of any substantial amount of the higher olefins inhibits polymerization of the ethylene while the higher olefins, if they react at all, do so only at the very low reaction rates and, in any case, without yielding polymers of the type with which this invention is concerned. Prosecution history of Natta U.S. Application No. 03/710,840, at 5. Expert polymer scientists testified that it would not have been predicted whether or how the higher olefins would behave in this system, or which catalysts would be effective. Professor Lido Porri testified that Claim 1 of the '987 patent ... is too broad and incomplete to have motivated one of skill in the art in 1954 to attempt to prepare such a catalyst and to have had a reasonable expectation that a copolymer as recited could be prepared. Declaration of Professor Lido Porri ¶ 44 (Oct. 30, 2002). Expert polymer scientist Dr. Joseph C. Floyd declared: In mid-1954, the reference to the new two component catalyst system of claim 1 [of the '987 patent] would have been too broad to have motivated one of ordinary skill to attempt to prepare such a catalyst system and have had a reasonable expectation that a copolymer as recited could have been prepared. Declaration of Joseph C. Floyd ¶ 40 (Nov. 4, 2002). The expert witnesses explained that before the invention claimed in the '687 patent, attempts to copolymerize ethylene with a higher olefin had been unsuccessful. Both Professor Porri and Dr. Floyd so stated. Second Declaration of Professor Lido Porri ¶ 20 (May 24, 2005); Third Declaration of Dr. Joseph C. Floyd ¶ 41 (May 27, 2005). Indeed, the PTO does not dispute that the claimed subject matter of the '687 and the '978 patents is patentably distinct. The presence of overlapping subject matter, and the specific choice of catalyst, present technological questions that were answered by the experts, without contradiction. The record contains no contrary authority, no citations or references or arguments, other than the flawed presumption of homology created by my colleagues. All of the experts testified as to the inability at that time to copolymerize ethylene and butylene, and that it was not possible to predict whether any adaptation of these new catalyst systems would achieve this long-sought result. The reexamination examiner wrote that The present coinventors developed a ground-breaking invention, so one skilled in the art would have been astounded by their accomplishments at the time the invention was made. Examiner's Answer, Application Number: 90/006,297, at 38. The law of double patenting is in terms of whether the later claimed invention is an obvious variant of the earlier claimed invention. In General Foods Corp. v. Studiengesellschaft Kohle mbH, 972 F.2d 1272 (Fed.Cir.1992), the court stressed the critical role of patentable distinction in obviousness-type double patenting: [T]he determining factor in deciding whether or not there is double patenting is the existence vel non of patentable difference between two sets of claims. The phrases actually used in the opinion include patentably distinguishable, patentable distinctions, and whether such differences would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. They are all equivalent. Id. at 1278-79. Although the Board ruled that it was irrelevant whether the '987 patent provided guidance for polymerization of alpha-olefins higher than propylene, such lack of guidance or absence of enablement is indeed relevant to whether the later invention would have been obvious in light of the earlier, or whether the asserted obvious variant could have been patented in both patents. As the '687 patent states, and as the witnesses reinforced, longer chain hydrocarbons behave differently, and their catalysis is unpredictable. See '687 patent col. 1, ll. 62-65 (it was not apparent that those [reaction] agents would be useful in the polymerization of the unsaturated hydrocarbons containing the vinyl group.); id. at col. 2, ll. 54-58 (In view of the foregoing, it could not be predicted, from the work with ethylene, that our polymerization agents would be useful for the production of higher molecular weight polymers of the vinyl hydrocarbons of formula CH2=CHR as defined herein.) In addition, the claims must be considered in their entirety, including the specific catalysts, whose use in these specific systems is agreed not to be shown in the earlier patent. In sum, in view of the recognition that the process in the '687 claims is patentably distinct from the '987 claims, double patenting can not lie. See Application of Sarett, 51 C.C.P.A. 1180, 327 F.2d 1005, 1016 (C.C.P.A.1964) (reversing rejections for obviousness-type double patenting because generic and specific claims may nonetheless be patently distinct); see generally In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 350 (Fed. Cir.1992) (explaining that a disclosure of a chemical genus does not automatically render obvious any species within the genus). In view of the irregularity of the reexamination and the flawed rulings on this appeal, I must, respectfully, dissent.