Opinion ID: 777846
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Printed Publications

Text: 22 We agree with Kvaerner that the court erred in granting summary judgment that the four SISL reports are not printed publications under § 102 because Kvaerner raised a genuine issue of material fact that the reports were sufficiently available to the public interested in the art at least before the priority date of the '707 and '119 patents (June 1, 1992), if not also before the critical date of those patents (June 1, 1991). The SISL joint venture released the Task 1000 and 2000 reports to its three members and six participants between late 1990 and the end of June 1992. Kvaerner submitted employee affidavits stating that those papers were not considered confidential and were distributed to interested parties, including outside contractors. SISL also submitted a second interim report to the Commission of European Communities in July 1991. The court thus improperly resolved questions of fact in Cooper's favor when it determined that the second report had not been distributed to SISL participants. Moreover, we disagree with the court's conclusion that the confidential label on that report removed it as an available prior art reference. As Kvaerner points out, the report contained only a single confidentiality notice relating to financial information on the fourth page of its 130 pages. That notice does not render the entire document inaccessible in light of evidence that the reports were available to participants who were allowed to share confidential data with others. These documents are therefore unlike those held not to qualify as prior art in Northern Telecom, as the documents in that case were not authorized for public release and were maintained under a policy of restricted access. N. Telecom, 908 F.2d at 936, 15 USPQ2d at 1325. 23 With respect to the final report bearing a date of March 1992, the district court also improperly resolved questions of fact in Cooper's favor in its determination that the report was not available until after June 29, 1992. The presence of the earlier date on the report indicates that it may have been available as of that date and would thus qualify as prior art under § 102(a). 24 Finally, on remand the district court should take into consideration that reports need only be accessible to the interested public, Mass. Inst. of Tech. v. AB Fortia, 774 F.2d 1104, 1109, 227 USPQ 428, 432 (Fed.Cir.1985), which in this case may be the very entities who had access to the documents: SISL joint venture members, participants, and their contractors and licensees. This does not appear to be a case in which documents shared with joint venture members are maintained in confidence. Here, those with access to the documents were asserted to be a significant portion of the interested public. Moreover, Kvaerner presented evidence that any other interested persons exercising reasonable diligence could have sought information concerning horizontal tree subsea well designs from SISL, much if not all of which information was available without restriction. However, those are matters the district court should resolve on remand. 25 Because we conclude that Cooper is foreclosed by the all-limitations rule from asserting infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, we affirm the court's grant of summary judgment of noninfringement of claim 10 of the '707 patent. However, the court erred in granting summary judgment on Kvaerner's motion that the asserted '119 claims are invalid for inadequate description and in granting Cooper's motion that the SISL reports do not qualify as prior art with respect to both the '707 and '119 patents. Accordingly, we 26 AFFIRM-IN-PART and REVERSE-IN-PART.