Opinion ID: 504965
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Inequitable conduct during prosecution

Text: 42 Inequitable conduct during prosecution of a patent must be proven by clear and convincing evidence of at least threshold levels of materiality and of intent to mislead. J.P. Stevens & Co. v. Lex Tex, Ltd., 747 F.2d 1553, 1559, 223 USPQ 1089, 1092 (Fed.Cir.1984), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 822, 106 S.Ct. 73, 88 L.Ed.2d 60 (1985). Nondisclosed or false information is material if there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable examiner would have considered the omitted reference or false information important in deciding whether to allow the application to issue as a patent. 37 C.F.R. Sec. 1.56(a) (1987); American Hoist & Derrick Co. v. Sowa & Sons, Inc., 725 F.2d 1350, 1363-64, 220 USPQ 763, 773 (Fed.Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 821, 105 S.Ct. 95, 83 L.Ed.2d 41 (1984). Proof of the requisite intent does not require evidence of deliberate scheming; in proper circumstances gross negligence is sufficient. Driscoll v. Cebalo, 731 F.2d 878, 885, 221 USPQ 745, 751 (Fed.Cir.1984); J.P. Stevens, 747 F.2d at 1560, 223 USPQ at 1092. Materiality and intent are factual issues subject to the clearly erroneous standard of review. J.P. Stevens, 747 F.2d at 1560, 223 USPQ at 1094; In re Jerabek, 789 F.2d 886, 889, 229 USPQ 530, 532 (Fed.Cir.1986). Once the requisite threshold levels of both materiality and intent are found, the court makes the legal determination as to whether there has been inequitable conduct by considering both factors in a balancing approach. American Hoist & Derrick, 725 F.2d at 1363, 220 USPQ at 763; J.P. Stevens, 747 F.2d at 1560, 223 USPQ at 1092. 43 Specialty argues that during prosecution Cabot's agent withheld information about (1) the Kaps and Mills patents, (2) Gardner's Italian patent (858,371) on slow recovery foam, and (3) the prior art foams manufactured and sold by Cabot's predecessor, National Research Corporation. The court found that the Kaps and Mills patents were not material. Although the opinion speaks of them as not being highly material, the opinion as a whole indicates that the court did not impose an improperly high standard of materiality. The court cited J.P. Stevens, and must be presumed to have used the standard of materiality set forth in that case. J.P. Stevens, 747 F.2d at 1550, 223 USPQ at 1092. Specialty characterizes those two patents as critical references which an examiner would find more pertinent than art that was cited. We agree with the district court that this argument is overly strained. Failure to cite nonmaterial, cumulative references is not inequitable conduct. Rolls-Royce, Ltd. v. GTE Valeron Corp., 800 F.2d 1101, 1107, 231 USPQ 185, 189 (Fed.Cir.1986). The court's finding that omission of those references did not reach the threshold of materiality for inequitable conduct was not clearly erroneous. 44 Specialty's arguments concerning the Gardner Italian patent on slow recovery foams and the prior existence of a commercially available foam is based on the theory that Cabot misled the examiner into thinking that slow recovery foams were entirely novel and absent in the prior art. The district court found that these references were material, but apparently did not find them to be particularly material, noting that the patent claims a mechanical device, and that the particular type of foam is irrelevant to the invention. The court rejected the contention that these foams rendered the invention obvious. 45 No intent to mislead was found. The court noted that, although Cabot did not cite the Italian patent when prosecuting the original patent, it called the Italian patent to the attention of the examiner during the reissue proceedings. With respect to the prior art foam, Cabot's agent testified that during prosecution he had simply forgotten to cite the existence of stock slow recovery foam sold by Cabot. The court did not find this to be evidence of any intent to deceive the Patent Office, but does not appear to have explicitly ruled whether this amounted to gross negligence or merely simple negligence. Simple negligence, oversight, or an erroneous judgment made in good faith is insufficient to establish intent. J.P. Stevens, 747 F.2d at 1560, 223 USPQ at 1092. Instead, the court apparently found it unnecessary to analyze this question further because it found that the foam had not been sold more than one year before the patent application was filed. See n. 9, supra. Specialty challenges that factual finding. However, it is not necessary to review that finding since if any error was committed it was harmless. Even if the failure to mention the existence of Cabot's foams to the examiner rises above the threshold level of intent, there was no reversible error in view of the low level of materiality of these foams found by the district court. Balancing the materiality and intent found by the court, Cabot did not engage in inequitable conduct during prosecution. If we were to give Specialty the benefit of the doubt by assuming that failure to mention the prior art foam rises to the level of gross negligence, we still have a low degree of materiality coupled with, at best, a low level of intent. [W]here it is demonstrated that a reasonable examiner would merely have considered particular information to be important but not crucial to his decision not to reject, a showing of facts which would indicate something more than gross negligence or recklessness may be required, and good faith judgment or honest mistake might well be a sufficient defense. American Hoist, 725 F.2d at 1363, 220 USPQ at 773. On this point, too, Specialty has failed to sustain its burden of producing clear and convincing evidence of inequitable conduct.