Opinion ID: 780586
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Foster Grant

Text: 42 Sunglass Hut next argues that certain sunglass lenses sold by Foster Grant more than one year before the filing of King's application are prior art to the '902 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b). To support this assertion, Sunglass Hut submitted a number of declarations describing the Foster Grant lenses. According to Sunglass Hut, those declarations corroborate each other and are corroborated by contemporaneous memoranda. Sunglass Hut contends that the court failed to recognize that corroboration and, moreover, misread the declarations when it found that the Foster Grant lenses were like those depicted in Figure 5(b) in the '902 patent and therefore lacked a vivid colored appearance. 43 Oakley responds that the declarations do not establish that the reflectance of the middle layer and thickness of the dielectric layer in the Foster Grant lenses created a differential effect, as claim 1 requires. Oakley also contends that the supposed corroboration is similarly deficient, and that the declarations cannot cross-corroborate each other. 44 We agree with Oakley that the district court's finding that the Foster Grant declarations fail to raise a substantial question of anticipation is not clearly erroneous. While the Foster Grant declarations do state that the Foster Grant prior art lenses had a vivid colored appearance produced by a differential effect between light reflected from the dielectric and light transmitted through the dielectric and reflected from the semireflective [chromium layer], e.g., Declaration of Theodore A. Haddad at 5, Oakley, (No. SA CV 01-1065 AHS), such statements are conclusory. For example, no basis is provided to explain why the chromium layer is asserted to be semireflective. Moreover, the declarations fail to address whether the thickness of the dielectric layer is causally related to the alleged differential effect. As another example, there is no quantitative assessment of the differential effect to support the conclusion that a vivid colored appearance is produced. 45 Because the Foster Grant declarations are facially deficient, whether corroborated or not, we need not address the corroboration issue. We caution again that our decision on this issue at this stage in the case carries no implication that Sunglass Hut cannot prevail on the merits after fuller development of the evidence. 46 We have considered Sunglass Hut's other arguments concerning the validity of the '902 patent, including its argument that it raised a substantial question of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103. Those arguments are not persuasive at this stage, and we now conclude that Oakley is reasonably likely to succeed on the merits at trial against all of Sunglass Hut's validity challenges.