Opinion ID: 780687
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Return of Briefs

Text: 25 Pursuant to our earlier decision's remand for determination of those issues that were properly raised during the earlier proceedings, Singh, 222 F.3d at 1371, 55 USPQ2d at 1679, the Board invited the parties to submit briefs on the issues of Singh's case for priority and Brake's sustenance of his burden of proof with respect to written description and enablement. Brake, Paper No. 199 at 12. After the parties submitted the invited briefs, the Board determined that Singh had presented new arguments in derogation of the Board's reminder that only issues that were properly raised in the original opposition were entitled to review at the final hearing. Id. at 13. In response, the Board returned all of the newly submitted briefs to the parties without further consideration, holding that the briefs contained, almost exclusively, new arguments, and lack the showing that Preliminary Motion 2 [concerning the Brake patent's entitlement to the Brake 1 filing date] should be modified. Id. at 15. 26 Singh argues that the Board erred in refusing to consider briefs submitted by Singh on remand. We review the Board's application of its rules for an abuse of discretion. Brown v. Barbacid, 276 F.3d 1327, 1332, 61 USPQ2d 1236, 1238 (Fed. Cir.2002). Although returning the briefs to the parties is a rather extraordinary measure, we do not find any abuse of discretion in the Board's doing so. 37 C.F.R. § 1.655(b) states: 27 A party shall not be entitled to raise for consideration at final hearing any matter which properly could have been raised by a motion under § 1.633 or 1.634 unless the matter was properly raised in a motion that was timely filed by the party under § 1.633 or 1.634 and the motion was denied or deferred to final hearing, the matter was properly raised by the party in a timely filed opposition to a motion under § 1.633 or 1.634 and the motion was granted over the opposition or deferred to final hearing, or the party shows good cause why the issue was not properly raised by a timely filed motion or oppositions. 28 37 C.F.R. § 1.655(b) (2002). 29 Because the Board found that Singh was attempting to raise in his briefs matters that could have been but were not raised at the outset of the interference, see Brake, Paper No. 199 at 12, the Board was acting properly within its discretion when it refused to consider the briefs. Singh could have raised his written description and enablement arguments at the outset of the interference; to the extent that he did not do so, those arguments have been waived. As we stated in Credle v. Bond, 25 F.3d 1566, 30 USPQ2d 1911 (Fed.Cir. 1994), the Board does not abuse its discretion when it declines to consider untimely arguments. Id. at 1572 n. 14, 25 F.3d 1566, 30 USPQ2d at 1916 n. 14. Furthermore, because the Board explicitly stated in its November 2, 2000 order that additional briefing was optional, Brake, Paper No. 179 at 5, it is difficult to see how the subsequent refusal to consider the briefs could have been an abuse of discretion. 30 Singh also asserts that the Board refused to consider certain arguments made in his original Main Brief. We find no abuse of discretion. Again, Singh did not show good cause for failing to raise these arguments at the preliminary motion stage, and the Board was entitled to decline to consider them.