Opinion ID: 769232
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Invalidity under Section 102(f)

Text: 30 Kimberly-Clark alternatively argues that the district court's judgment of invalidity should be affirmed because, contrary to that court's conclusion, the claims are also invalid under section 102(f); it asserts that someone other than Solomon must have conceived the invention claimed by the '381 patent. Kimberly-Clark contends that the claims require a depression formed from material having two different thicknesses, but the panty Solomon invented, as revealed by her deposition testimony and the DX13 prototype, did not contain such a depression. Kimberly-Clark notes that while Solomon argues that her approval of the patent application before it was filed and her oath of inventorship prove that she was the true inventor, her deposition testimony shows that she did not understand the application that her lawyer filed on her behalf. Lastly, while Kimberly-Clark acknowledges that it was unable to name the true inventor, it contends that section 102(f) only requires that the accused infringer prove by clear and convincing evidence that the alleged patentee is not the true inventor, which it has done. 31 Solomon responds that the district court correctly held that the claims were not invalid under section 102(f). Solomon argues that Kimberly-Clark failed to prove invalidity by clear and convincing evidence, because Kimberly-Clark failed to prove the identity of the true inventor, and Solomon's allegedly inconsistent testimony was insufficient to invalidate the '381 patent. In any event, Solomon argues that she never testified that she was not the true inventor, and she notes that she actively assisted her patent attorney prepare her application and signed the oath of inventorship. While Solomon concedes that the DX13 prototype does in fact contain a depression region of uniform thickness, she points out that that prototype was one of several, and that another prototype, the DX2 prototype, contains a depression formed by material having two different thicknesses. Moreover, Solomon argues that her testimony and the prototypes are consistent with her contention from the beginning of this litigation that the patent claims cover both panties with a depression made of material having two different thicknesses and panties with a depression made of material of uniform thickness. 32 Section 102(f) provides that [a] person shall be entitled to a patent unless--he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented. . . . 35 U.S.C. § 102(f) (1994). Chisum explains that section 102(f) 33 bars issuance of a valid patent to a person or persons who derive the conception of the invention from any other source or person. A corollary of this requirement is the rule of proper joinder of inventors. The rule operates both as to misjoinder (erroneous addition of a person who is not in fact a joint inventor) and as to nonjoinder (failure to add a joint inventor). Potentially, misjoinder and nonjoinder are as fatal to the validity of a patent (or the effectiveness of a filed application) as a case of complete inventorship error. 34 1 Chisum, supra, § 2.03, at 2-40 & nn.1-2. If failure to comply with section 102(f) is proven by clear and convincing evidence, the claims of a patent will be held invalid. See Pannu v. Iolab Corp., 155 F.3d 1344, 1349, 47 USPQ2d 1657, 1661 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (setting forth this standard in the context of nonjoinder). However, when a party has been misjoined or nonjoined, a patent may be saved from invalidity by operation of 35 U.S.C. § 256. See id. at 1350, 47 USPQ2d at 1662. 35 We agree with Solomon that the district court correctly held that Kimberly-Clark failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the claims of the '381 patent are invalid under section 102(f). Although we understand Kimberly-Clark to contend that the claims are invalid under section 102(f) either because Solomon is simply not the true inventor and thus should not be named on the patent, or that someone else (Kimberly-Clark suggests Solomon's patent attorney) invented the claimed invention and should have been joined but was not, both of Kimberly-Clark's assertions fail for the same reason: Kimberly-Clark relied entirely on Solomon's lack of precision in defining her invention in the course of her deposition and the DX13 prototype, rather than introducing clear and convincing evidence that someone else was the true inventor. While an inventor's statements made during the course of litigation might in some circumstances justify a court in concluding that the named inventor did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented, 35 U.S.C. § 102(f), it would require much stronger evidence that the named inventor was not the true inventor to justify a conclusion of clear and convincing evidence of invalidity. Despite some vagueness and inconsistency in Solomon's deposition testimony, she maintained throughout that she invented the claimed subject matter, and she submitted evidence that the DX2 prototype in her patent attorney's files embodied the claimed invention. Moreover, the DX13 prototype actually supports Solomon's position, as she has consistently maintained from the outset of the litigation that her invention includes panties and panty liners with a depression of uniform thickness. See Solomon I, 1998 WL 279346, at . In light of that evidence, and in light of the fact that Kimberly-Clark failed to offer any evidence that a different inventor was responsible for the invention, the district court was correct to deny Kimberly-Clark's motion for summary judgment of invalidity under section 102(f). 36 As for the suggestion that Solomon's attorney might be the true inventor, we regard that argument as misguided. An attorney's professional responsibility is to assist his or her client in defining her invention to obtain, if possible, a valid patent with maximum coverage. An attorney performing that role should not be a competitor of the client, asserting inventorship as a result of representing his client. Cf. Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Dep't of Commerce, Manual of Patent Examining Procedure app. R § 10.64 (7th ed.1998) (Avoiding acquisition of interest in litigation or proceeding before the [Patent and Trademark] Office). Thus, to assert that proper performance of the attorney's role is a ground for invalidating the patent constitutes a failure to understand the proper role of a patent attorney. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court did not err in rejecting Kimberly-Clark's section 102(f) invalidity defense. We therefore need not assess the remaining evidence presented by Kimberly-Clark, or reach the parties' arguments relating to 35 U.S.C. § 256.