Court Opinion

ID: 9839513
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-13 15:01:58.851848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:33.492034
License: Public Domain

Case: 21-2063   Document: 73    Page: 1    Filed: 08/16/2023

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                 ______________________

                     INCEPT LLC,
                       Appellant

                           v.

           PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.,
                     Appellee

  KATHERINE K. VIDAL, UNDER SECRETARY OF
  COMMERCE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
    AND DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES
      PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE,
                  Intervenor
            ______________________

                  2021-2063, 2021-2065
                 ______________________

     Appeals from the United States Patent and Trademark
 Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Nos. IPR2020-
 00002, IPR2020-00004.
                  ______________________

                Decided: August 16, 2023
                 ______________________

     TIMOTHY E. GRIMSRUD, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath
 LLP, Minneapolis, MN, argued for appellant. Also repre-
 sented by LAUREN J.F. BARTA; CHRISTOPHER J. BURRELL,
 BETHANY N. MIHALIK, Washington, DC.

    TUNG ON KONG, Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati,
Case: 21-2063      Document: 73     Page: 2    Filed: 08/16/2023

 2                    INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 PC, San Francisco, CA, argued for appellee. Also repre-
 sented by TASHA THOMAS, RICHARD TORCZON, Washington,
 DC; LORELEI WESTIN, San Diego, CA.

     MARY L. KELLY, Office of the Solicitor, United States
 Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA, for interve-
 nor.   Also represented by PETER J. AYERS, DANIEL
 KAZHDAN, THOMAS W. KRAUSE, FARHEENA YASMEEN
 RASHEED.
                 ______________________

     Before NEWMAN, SCHALL, and TARANTO, Circuit Judges.
      Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge SCHALL.
 Opinion concurring-in-part and dissenting-in-part filed by
                 Circuit Judge NEWMAN.
      Incept LLC owns U.S. Patent Nos. 8,257,723 (“the ’723
 patent”) and 7,744,913 (“the ’913 patent”). It now appeals
 from two final written decisions of the U.S. Patent and
 Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the
 Board”) holding the claims of the ’723 patent and the ’913
 patent unpatentable as anticipated by, or obvious in view
 of, the asserted prior art. For the following reasons, we af-
 firm.
                         BACKGROUND
                               I
      The ’723 and ’913 patents relate to improved methods
 for treating cancer, particularly prostate cancer, using ra-
 diation. The patents describe methods of introducing a
 filler between a radiation target tissue and other tissue to
 increase the distance between the two and thereby de-
 crease the amount of radiation received by the non-tar-
 geted tissue. ’723 patent at Abstract, col. 2 ll. 28–31; ’913
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                    3

 patent at Abstract, col. 2 ll. 28–31. 1 The ’723 patent has
 one independent claim and twenty-three dependent claims.
 ’723 patent col. 16 l. 49–col. 18 l. 23. The ’913 patent has
 two independent claims and twenty-three dependent
 claims. ’913 patent col. 16 l. 43–col. 18 l. 32.
     Independent claim 1 of the ’723 patent recites:
     1. A method of delivering a therapeutic dose of ra-
     diation to a patient comprising
     introducing a biocompatible, biodegradable filler
     between an organ and a nearby tissue to increase a
     distance between the organ and the tissue, and
     treating the tissue with the therapeutic dose of ra-
     diation so that the presence of the filler causes the
     organ to receive less of the dose of radiation com-
     pared to the amount of the dose of radiation the or-
     gan would receive in the absence of the filler,
     wherein the filler is introduced as an injectable ma-
     terial and is a gel in the patient, and wherein the
     filler is removable by biodegradation in the patient.
 ’723 patent col. 16 ll. 49–59. Independent claim 1 of the
 ’913 patent is similar to claim 1 of the ’723 patent but in-
 cludes the additional limitation that the filler is introduced
 specifically between a patient’s prostate gland and rectum.
 ’913 patent col. 16 ll. 43–57. Accordingly, the claims of both
 patents recite a filler that is (1) biocompatible, (2) injecta-
 ble, (3) a gel in the patient, (4) biodegradable/removable by
 biodegradation, and (5) introduced between a radiation
 target and nearby tissue. 2

     1    The ’723 patent is a continuation of, and has a spec-
 ification identical to, the ’913 patent.
      2   Independent claim 17 of the ’913 patent differs be-
 cause it recites additional limitations and does not include
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 4                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

                               II
     Palette Life Sciences, Inc. (“Palette”) filed petitions for
 inter partes review challenging the claims of the ’723 and
 ’913 patents as unpatentable over prior art, including U.S.
 Patent No. 6,624,245 to Wallace et al. (“Wallace”).
      Wallace describes a method for the “rapid formation of
 a biocompatible gel . . . at a selected site within a patient’s
 body.” Wallace at Abstract. Wallace explains that its bio-
 compatible gels can be formed from reaction mixtures that
 are injected at a specific site within a patient’s body and
 allowed to crosslink at the site of the injection. Id. col. 10
 ll. 8–12. Wallace provides that its gels may be formed from
 polymers that include biodegradable segments or blocks
 that are hydrolyzed in the presence of water or enzymati-
 cally cleaved in situ. Id. col. 19 ll. 3–19. According to Wal-
 lace, the “preferred application” of its compositions is for
 use as a “tissue sealant[] and adhesive[].” Id. col. 28 ll. 44–
 62. Wallace explains, however, that “[t]he compositions
 can also be used as a large space-filling device for organ
 displacement in a body cavity during surgical or radiation
 procedures, for example, to protect the intestines during a
 planned course of radiation to the pelvis.” Id. col. 33 ll. 64–
 67.
     Palette’s petition challenging the ’723 patent asserted
 that claims 1, 6, 8–12, 14, 15, and 17–22 would have been
 anticipated by Wallace, that claims 1–6, 8–12, and 14–24
 would have been obvious in view of Wallace, and that
 claims 7 and 13 would have been obvious over Wallace in
 combination with PCT Publication No. WO 94/25080 to

 some of the limitations of independent claim 1 of both pa-
 tents (e.g., the filler being injectable and a gel in the pa-
 tient). We need not separately address claim 17, however,
 because Incept does not provide any argument based on
 those differences. See Appellant’s Br. 2–3, 6, 8.
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                  5

 Griffith-Cima et al. (“Griffith-Cima”). J.A. 149. In its pe-
 tition challenging the ’913 patent, Palette asserted that
 claims 1–18 and 20–24 would have been obvious over Wal-
 lace in combination with U.S. Patent No. 6,210,314 to Ein-
 Gal (“Ein-Gal”), and that claims 19 and 25 would have been
 obvious over the combination of Wallace, Ein-Gal, and Grif-
 fith-Cima. J.A. 5479.
     The Board instituted inter partes review and ulti-
 mately issued final written decisions in which it held that
 Palette had established the challenged claims to be un-
 patentable on the Wallace-based grounds set forth in the
 two petitions. Palette Life Scis., Inc. v. Incept LLC, No.
 IPR2020-00002, 2021 WL 1393447 (P.T.A.B. April 13,
 2021) (’723 Final Written Decision); Palette Life Scis., Inc.
 v. Incept LLC, No. IPR2020-00004, 2021 WL 1395258
 (P.T.A.B. April 13, 2021) (’913 Final Written Decision). 3
     Incept appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.
 § 1295(a)(4)(A).
                         DISCUSSION
                               I
       We review the Board’s legal conclusions de novo and
 its factual findings for substantial evidence. Becton, Dick-
 inson & Co. v. Baxter Corp., 998 F.3d 1337, 1339 (Fed. Cir.
 2021). Anticipation is a question of fact. Mylan Pharms.
 Inc. v. Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., 50 F.4th 147, 152 (Fed.
 Cir. 2022). Obviousness is a question of law based on un-
 derlying factual determinations. KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex
 Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 427 (2007). Those underlying factual
 determinations include: (1) the scope and content of the
 prior art; (2) differences between the prior art and the

     3  Palette’s petitions set forth other grounds for un-
 patentability of the ’723 and ’913 patents’ claims that the
 Board declined to reach in its final written decisions.
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 6                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 claims at issue; (3) the level of ordinary skill in the perti-
 nent art; and (4) secondary considerations such as commer-
 cial success, long felt but unsolved needs, and failure of
 others. Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 17–18
 (1966).
     Substantial evidence is “such relevant evidence as a
 reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a
 conclusion.” Consol. Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229
 (1938). The possibility of drawing two inconsistent conclu-
 sions from the evidence does not prevent the Board’s find-
 ings from being supported by substantial evidence. See
 Consolo v. Fed. Mar. Comm’n, 383 U.S. 607, 620 (1966).
                               II
      We begin with anticipation. Under 35 U.S.C. § 102, a
 prior art reference will anticipate a patent claim if it dis-
 closes all of the limitations of the claim “arranged or com-
 bined in the same way as in the claim.” Net MoneyIN, Inc.
 v. VeriSign, Inc., 545 F.3d 1359, 1369–70 (Fed. Cir. 2008).
 Incept argues on appeal that the Board committed legal er-
 ror because it engaged in a “patchwork approach” that in-
 volved “picking and choosing” from Wallace’s different
 teachings to piece together the elements of the ’723 patent
 claims. Appellant’s Br. 31–33 (citing In re Arkley, 455 F.2d
 586, 587–88 (CCPA 1972)). According to Incept, Wallace
 “teaches a complex, multi-step process for its gel that in-
 volves picking and choosing among numerous materials
 and properties,” such that Wallace “describes millions, if
 not billions, of different possible compositions, each with
 different properties.” Id. at 34–35. Incept relies on cases
 from this court explaining that, when a prior art reference
 describes a genus and the challenged claim recites a spe-
 cies of that genus, anticipation turns on whether the genus
 was of such a defined and limited class that one of ordinary
 skill in the art could have “at once envisaged” each member
 of the genus. Id. at 36 (citing Eli Lilly & Co. v. Zenith Gold-
 line Pharms., Inc., 471 F.3d 1369, 1376 (Fed. Cir. 2006);
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                     7

 Atofina v. Great Lakes Chem. Corp., 441 F.3d 991, 999
 (Fed. Cir. 2006); Metabolite Lab’ys, Inc. v. Lab’y Corp. of
 Am. Holdings, 370 F.3d 1354, 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2004)).
      We see no legal error in the Board’s anticipation anal-
 ysis. The Board did not engage in “picking and choosing”
 features from different teachings of Wallace. Instead, it
 found that Wallace expressly describes compositions that
 have the claimed characteristics of, and are used for the
 same displacement purpose as, the compositions referred
 to in the ’723 patent claims challenged as anticipated. As
 the Board explained, although Wallace discloses various
 options for each component of its compositions, the charac-
 teristics of those compositions required for anticipation
 would remain, even if the degree to which those character-
 istics would be present could vary (in ways immaterial to
 anticipation). ’723 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL
 1393447, at *12 (“Wallace’s disclosure of various options for
 each component of its composition does not change those
 characteristics of its filler composition that are recited by
 claim 1 [of the ’723 patent].”). Moreover, the claims of the
 ’723 patent are not directed to a “species” of fillers that fall
 within the “genus” of compositions described in Wallace.
 Rather, the ’723 patent claims are directed to a method of
 introducing fillers having certain general qualities, which
 general qualities Wallace’s compositions are also described
 as having. Incept cannot use the fact that Wallace de-
 scribes multiple compositions to evade an anticipation find-
 ing where Wallace provides “as complete detail as is
 contained in the patent claim,” such that a skilled artisan
 would have understood that Wallace’s compositions had
 the same generic properties as those in the ’723 patent
 claims. See Richardson v. Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd., 868 F.2d
 1226, 1236 (Fed. Cir. 1989) (providing that, to anticipate,
 “[t]he identical invention must be shown in as complete de-
 tail as is contained in the patent claim”).
    Incept next takes issue with what it refers to as the
 Board’s failure to identify a teaching in Wallace that any of
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 8                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 its compositions are “entirely removable by biodegrada-
 tion.” Appellant’s Br. 40 (emphasis added). Wallace’s
 teaching of “biodegradable segments,” Incept contends,
 “[a]t most . . . suggests only that, at least in some applica-
 tions, a portion of the polymer may be biodegradable,” par-
 ticularly because Wallace elsewhere teaches that its
 compositions “are not readily degradable in vivo.” Id. at
 40–41 (citing Wallace col. 19 ll. 3–9, ll. col. 34 ll. 11–14).
 We are not persuaded that the Board’s finding of biodegra-
 dability was insufficient. To begin, the Board expressly
 found Wallace’s filler compositions not only to be “biode-
 gradable” but also to specifically be “removable by biodeg-
 radation,” as the claims require. ’723 Final Written
 Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *12. In support of this find-
 ing, the Board relied on the below excerpt of Wallace:
     The polymer may include biodegradable segments
     and blocks, either distributed throughout the poly-
     mer’s molecular structure or present as a single
     block, as in a block copolymer. Biodegradable seg-
     ments are those that degrade so as to break cova-
     lent bonds. Typically, biodegradable segments are
     segments that are hydrolyzed in the presence of
     water and/or enzymatically cleaved in situ.
 Wallace col. 19 ll. 3–9. Thus, Wallace teaches that a poly-
 mer can have “biodegradable segments,” distributed
 throughout its molecular structure, that degrade so as to
 break the polymer’s covalent bonds. While this excerpt of
 Wallace alone constitutes substantial evidence to support
 the Board’s finding, the finding is also supported by Pal-
 ette’s expert’s testimony, noted by the Board, that a skilled
 artisan would have appreciated that Wallace teaches that
 the filler is removable by biodegradation. ’723 Final Writ-
 ten Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *7 (citing J.A. 1083
 (¶ 126)). Incept points to a statement in Wallace to the ef-
 fect that polymers, generally, are “essentially nondegrada-
 ble in vivo over a period of at least several months” and
 another statement in Wallace to the effect that its
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                  9

 compositions are “not readily degradable.” See Appellant’s
 Br. 17, 40–41 (quoting Wallace col. 7 ll. 25–29, col. 34 ll.
 11–14 (emphasis added)). But the Board could reasonably
 read those statements as not contradicting the Board’s
 finding that Wallace teaches compositions that have the
 only biodegradability properties required by the claims at
 issue, for which no narrowing construction of the biodegra-
 dability term was adopted by the Board. Our role is not to
 reweigh evidence or make factual findings, but to review
 the Board’s findings for substantial evidence. Roku, Inc. v.
 Universal Elecs., Inc., 63 F.4th 1319, 1326 (Fed. Cir. 2023);
 Consolo, 383 U.S. at 620 (“[T]he possibility of drawing two
 inconsistent conclusions from the evidence does not pre-
 vent an administrative agency’s finding from being sup-
 ported by substantial evidence.”).
     Incept next contends that the Board failed to identify a
 teaching in Wallace that any of its compositions are placed
 “between an organ and a nearby tissue,” as required by the
 ’723 patent claims. As the Board explained, however, “Wal-
 lace states that ‘[t]he compositions can also be used as a
 large space-filling device for organ displacement in a body
 cavity during surgical or radiation procedures, for example,
 to protect the intestines during a planned course of radia-
 tion to the pelvis.’” ’723 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL
 1393447, at *8 (citing Wallace col. 33 ll. 64–67). Before the
 Board, Incept argued that Wallace’s “space-filling device”
 use did not apply to all of Wallace’s compositions. See J.A.
 442–44, 923–26. The Board expressly found, though, that
 a skilled artisan “would have understood Wallace’s disclo-
 sure that its compositions may be used as a space-filling
 device applies generally to all its compositions.” ’723 Final
 Written Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *9. This finding is
 supported by substantial evidence in the form of Wallace’s
 teachings that its “compositions of the present invention
 can be used in a variety of different applications” and Wal-
 lace’s general statement that “[t]he compositions,”
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 10                  INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 generally, can serve as a space-filling device. Wallace col.
 28 ll. 30–31, col. 33 ll. 64–67.
     In sum, we see no legal error in the Board’s anticipa-
 tion analysis for the ’723 patent, and substantial evidence
 supports the Board’s findings that Wallace discloses each
 element of claim 1 of the ’723 patent, arranged as in that
 claim. We therefore affirm the Board’s determination that
 claims 1, 6, 8–12, 14, 15, and 17–22 of the ’723 patent are
 anticipated by Wallace.
                              III
      We turn now to obviousness. 4 Incept argues that the
 Board’s obviousness analysis for both patents was errone-
 ous because the Board: (1) merely reiterated its anticipa-
 tion analysis; (2) disregarded statements in Wallace that
 teach away from the claimed biodegradable compositions;
 (3) did not separately analyze the obviousness of the de-
 pendent claims; and (4) improperly disregarded Incept’s
 evidence of commercial success. We address each argu-
 ment in turn.

      4  Having held that claims 1, 6, 8–12, 14, 15, and 17–
 22 of the ’723 patent are anticipated by Wallace, we need
 not address whether those claims are also rendered obvious
 by Wallace. See In re Paulsen, 30 F.3d 1475, 1481 (Fed.
 Cir. 1994) (“[S]ince anticipation is the ultimate of obvious-
 ness, the subject matter of these claims is necessarily obvi-
 ous and we need not consider them further.” (quoting In re
 Baxter Travenol Lab’ys, 952 F.2d 388, 391 (Fed. Cir.
 1992))). Therefore, this section of our opinion pertains to
 those claims of the ’723 patent (claims 2–5, 7, 13, 16, 23,
 and 24) for which the Board made only obviousness-based
 unpatentability determinations.
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                  11

                               A
     Incept first contends that the Board’s obviousness
 analysis for both patents was based entirely on its “flawed”
 anticipation analysis for the ’723 patent claims. Appel-
 lant’s Br. 48. Incept takes issue with what it contends is a
 “conclusory” finding of motivation to combine, particularly
 with respect to the combination of Wallace with Ein-Gal for
 the ’913 patent. Id. at 50–51.
     To begin, having found no error in the Board’s antici-
 pation analysis, we fail to see how the Board’s reliance
 upon that analysis was in error. As discussed above, Wal-
 lace discloses, and thereby renders obvious, the use of a gel
 that is both biocompatible and biodegradable. See ’723 Fi-
 nal Written Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *13–14; ’913 Fi-
 nal Written Decision, 2021 WL 1395258, at *8, *14 (noting
 Palette’s assertion that, “to the extent Wallace does not ex-
 plicitly disclose the use of a gel that is both biocompatible
 and biodegradable, Wallace teaches use of such a gel, ren-
 dering it obvious.”).
     We also disagree that the Board’s obviousness analysis
 for the ’913 patent was based entirely on its anticipation
 analysis for the ’723 patent claims. Instead, in its obvious-
 ness analysis for the claims of the ’913 patent, the Board
 explained that the petition relied on Ein-Gal as teaching
 the ’913 patent’s limitation of displacement of the rectum
 relative to the prostate gland. ’913 Final Written Decision,
 2021 WL 1395258, at *7. In addition, the Board noted Pal-
 ette’s contention that “[b]oth Wallace and Ein-Gal recog-
 nize and appreciate the benefit of displacing tissue away
 from a site intended to be irradiated, as doing so would pro-
 tect the tissue from the harmful effects of radiation.” Id. at
 *8 (citing J.A. 5508). The Board ultimately determined:
     Petitioner has shown by a preponderance of the ev-
     idence that the combined teachings of Wallace and
     Ein-Gal teach or suggest each limitation of inde-
     pendent claim 1, and that based on those teachings,
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 12                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

      along with the knowledge in the art, a person of or-
      dinary skill in the art would have been motivated,
      with a reasonable expectation of success, to use
      Wallace’s compositions for its disclosed purpose of
      displacing an organ for radiation therapy, includ-
      ing displacing the rectum relative to the prostate
      gland, wherein the composition is eventually re-
      moved by biodegradation, as required by claim 1.
 ’913 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL 1395258, at *13. The
 Board therefore made findings of motivation to combine
 that are not merely conclusory. Those findings are sup-
 ported by substantial evidence in the form of the references
 themselves and Palette’s expert’s detailed testimony,
 which the Board found to be “persuasive.” Id. at *14; ’723
 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *14; see Wal-
 lace col. 33 ll. 64–67; Ein-Gal col. 1 ll. 31–36; J.A. 1091–98
 (¶¶ 143–57), 6376–90 (¶¶ 132–52).
                                B
      In an argument parallel to its argument regarding an-
 ticipation, Incept contends that the Board ignored Wal-
 lace’s teaching away from biodegradable compositions.
 Appellant’s Br. 52–54 (citing Wallace col. 34 ll. 11–14, col.
 7 ll. 25–29). We disagree. The Board specifically noted
 that “Wallace’s teaching that all suitable polymers dis-
 closed are ‘essentially nondegradable in vivo over a period
 of at least several months,’ . . . teaches, or at least suggests,
 that those polymers are essentially degradable in the body
 over a period of more than at least several months.” ’723
 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *14; ’913 Fi-
 nal Written Decision, 2021 WL 1395258, at *14 (both citing
 Wallace col. 7 ll. 25–29). In any event, “a reference does
 not teach away if it ‘merely expresses a general preference
 for an alternative invention but does not criticize, discredit
 or otherwise discourage investigation into the invention
 claimed.’” UCB, Inc. v. Actavis Laby’s UT, Inc., 65 F.4th
 679, 692 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (quoting DePuy Spine, Inc. v.
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                  13

 Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc., 567 F.3d 1314, 1327
 (2009)). The portions of Wallace that Incept points to
 clearly lack such a teaching. As discussed above, substan-
 tial evidence supports the Board’s finding with respect to
 the scope of Wallace’s teaching. Wallace col. 19 ll. 3–19.
                               C
     Incept next contends that the Board did not separately
 analyze certain dependent claims of the two patents, for
 example, dependent claim 16 of the ’723 patent and de-
 pendent claim 6 of the ’913 patent, both of which provide
 biodegradability time limits. Appellant’s Br. 54–56 & n.7
 (addressing claims 2–6, 8–12, and 14–24 of the ’723 patent,
 and claims 2–16, 18, and 20–24 of the ’913 patent); ’723 pa-
 tent col. 17 ll. 24–25; ’913 patent col. 17 ll. 3–4. Palette,
 however, identified disclosures in the prior art that teach
 each of the elements of these claims, and Incept did not
 separately argue their patentability before the Board. ’723
 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *14; ’913 Fi-
 nal Written Decision, 2021 WL 1395258, at *14 & n.13.
 Where a party “does not raise any arguments with respect
 to any other claim limitation, nor does it separately argue
 [the] dependent claim,” “[the] dependent claim . . . stands
 or falls together with [the] independent claim.” Genentech,
 Inc. v. Hospira, Inc., 946 F.3d 1333, 1340 (Fed. Cir. 2020). 5

     5    For claim 16 of the ’723 patent and claim 6 of the
 ’913 patent, Incept did note that these claims require par-
 ticular biodegradation properties. It did so in the context
 of its argument (pertaining to the independent claims) that
 “the range of compositions within the ambit of Wallace’s
 disclosure is so vast that a [skilled artisan] could neither
 have ‘at once envisaged’ all of them nor have known what
 properties any particular one of them would have.” J.A.
 467–68, 5814–15. As the Board noted, however, Incept dis-
 cussed claim 16 of the ’723 patent only in its discussion of
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 14                  INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

                               D
      Incept’s final argument is that the Board erred in its
 obviousness analysis because it “imposed an overly strin-
 gent standard for showing commercial success.” Appel-
 lant’s Br. 57. Incept contends that it presented “clear[]
 evidence of commercial success that the Board was not en-
 titled to ignore.” Id. at 59. According to Incept, that evi-
 dence was (1) a table reflecting “annual unit shipments” to
 external customers (i.e., physicians and hospitals) in the
 United States” of SpaceOAR®, an injectable synthetic hy-
 drogel marketed by Boston Scientific Corporation through
 its subsidiary Augmentix, Inc., the exclusive licensee of the

 anticipation by Wallace, J.A. 467–68, ’723 Final Written
 Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *13 n.12, despite claim 16
 not having been challenged as anticipated.
     And, as for claim 6 of the ’913 patent, the Board ex-
 plained that Palette had “established persuasively,
 through the teachings of Wallace and the testimony of [Pal-
 ette’s expert] Dr. Dicker, that a [skilled artisan] would
 have known how to configure Wallace’s compositions to bi-
 odegrade within a predetermined time, such as less than
 approximately 90 days.” ’913 Final Written Decision, 2021
 WL 1395258, at *14 n.13. This finding is supported by sub-
 stantial evidence. See Wallace col. 1 ll. 34–38 (acknowledg-
 ing that it was known that “synthetic polymer compositions
 can be formulated to exhibit predetermined . . . biological
 characteristics, such as biodegradability”), col. 20 ll. 44–47
 (“Gelatin may have the added benefit of being degradable
 faster than collagen.”); J.A. 6400–01 (¶ 175) (Dr. Dicker ex-
 plaining that a skilled artisan “would have known how to
 configure the gel compositions taught by Wallace to biode-
 grade within a predetermined time, including less than ap-
 proximately 90 days.”). Therefore, even if it could be said
 that Incept argued this claim separately, we agree with the
 Board’s ultimate obviousness conclusion.
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                   15

 ’723 and ’913 patents, for the years 2015–2019; and (2) tes-
 timonial evidence from Incept’s expert that he estimated
 about 55% of all prostate cancer radiation therapy treat-
 ments in 2019 to have included SpaceOar® placement.
 ’723 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *15–17;
 ’913 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL 1395258, at *15–17;
 Appellant’s Br. 8.
      In its final written decisions, the Board concluded that
 the evidence Incept relied upon was insufficient. We see
 no reversible error in that determination, whether viewed
 as a factual one about the level of success or a legal one
 about the weight of any such success in the overall obvious-
 ness analysis. Commercial success is “usually shown by
 significant sales in a relevant market.” J.T. Eaton & Co. v.
 Atl. Paste & Glue Co., 106 F.3d 1563, 1571 (Fed. Cir. 1997).
 Incept relied on its table of “annual unit shipments” to sup-
 port its assertion that the “case volume” of SpaceOAR® “in
 the U.S. ha[d] roughly doubled year-on-year through 2019.”
 J.A. 480, 5827; see also J.A. 632, 5980. A senior accountant
 for Boston Scientific explained, however, that Incept’s table
 reflected not only SpaceOAR® sales numbers, but also re-
 placement units and free sample units. See J.A. 5110–13,
 5117. 6 Moreover, for two of the years in the table, 2018 and
 2019, Incept did not provide a breakdown of the number of
 units sold as compared to those given away for free or pro-
 vided as a replacement, and instead merely relied upon tes-
 timony that the number of replacement and sample units
 was “small.” J.A. 5113–16 (¶¶ 16–21). Thus, as the Board
 noted, “the record does not demonstrate whether the year-

     6   As the Boston Scientific accountant explained,
 units requiring “replacement” would include units where,
 for example, the delivery syringe clogged. J.A. 5110–11
 (¶ 7). In addition, “free sample units” were “sent to cus-
 tomers (i.e., physicians or hospitals) at the discretion of the
 sales and customer service teams.” Id.
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 16                  INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 over-year increase in units shipped is attributable to in-
 creased sales as opposed to an increase in samples and re-
 placements that were shipped.”         ’723 Final Written
 Decision, 2021 WL 1393447, at *17; ’913 Final Written De-
 cision, 2021 WL 1395258, at *16. And, while Incept did
 provide a breakdown of the units “sold” for the years 2015–
 2017, it did not argue before the Board in its Patent Owner
 Response or Sur-Reply that the data for these years demon-
 strated commercial success. J.A. 480, 632, 5827, 5980.
      Finally, Incept takes issue with the Board’s statement
 that Incept did not provide “commercial success in the con-
 text of the market as a whole.” ’723 Final Written Decision,
 2021 WL 1393447, at *17; ’913 Final Written Decision, 2021
 WL 1395258, at *16. This statement is contrary to our
 holding in Chemours Co. FC, LLC v. Daikin Industries,
 Ltd., 4 F.4th 1370, 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2021), Incept asserts. In
 Chemours, we held that “market share data, though poten-
 tially useful, is not required to show commercial success.”
 Id. Contrary to Incept’s argument, the Board did not re-
 quire Incept to provide market share data. Instead, the
 Board weighed the evidence provided by Incept and merely
 found that evidence insufficient, alone, to show commercial
 success. See id. (“The Board is certainly entitled to weigh
 evidence and find, if appropriate, that Chemours’s gross
 sales data were insufficient to show commercial success
 without market share data.”). To the extent Incept also
 contends that the Board improperly dismissed the market
 share data that Incept did provide, we defer to the Board’s
 findings concerning the credibility of expert witnesses, see
 Yorkey v. Diab, 601 F.3d 1279, 1284 (Fed. Cir. 2010), and
 Incept has not otherwise demonstrated that those findings
 are unsupported by substantial evidence. 7

      7  Incept provided testimonial evidence from an ex-
 pert, Dr. Timothy Showalter, estimating that 55% of all
 prostate cancer radiation therapy treatments in the United
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                17

                        CONCLUSION
     We have considered Incept’s remaining arguments and
 find them unpersuasive. Accordingly, and for the reasons
 set forth above, we affirm the Board’s final written deci-
 sions.
                        AFFIRMED

 States in 2019 included SpaceOAR® placement. J.A. 5121.
 The Board found this testimony to be not credible because
 it found Dr. Showalter’s calculations to be insufficiently
 supported by the evidence. As the Board noted, in his cal-
 culations, Dr. Showalter inexplicably relied on (a) a radia-
 tion therapy rate from a United Kingdom trial and (b) the
 number of new cases of prostate cancer in 2019, as opposed
 to all existing cases. ’723 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL
 1393447, at *17; ’913 Final Written Decision, 2021 WL
 1395258, at *17.
Case: 21-2063    Document: 73     Page: 18   Filed: 08/16/2023

    United States Court of Appeals
        for the Federal Circuit
                  ______________________

                       INCEPT LLC,
                         Appellant

                             v.

           PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.,
                     Appellee

   KATHERINE K. VIDAL, UNDER SECRETARY OF
   COMMERCE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
     AND DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED STATES
       PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE,
                   Intervenor
             ______________________

                   2021-2063, 2021-2065
                  ______________________

     Appeals from the United States Patent and Trademark
 Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in Nos. IPR2020-
 00002, IPR2020-00004.
                    ______________________

 NEWMAN, Circuit Judge, concurring-in-part and dissent-
 ing-in-part.
     I share the conclusion that claim 1 of Incept’s U.S. Pa-
 tent No. 8,257,723 (“the ’723 patent”) and claim 1 of U.S.
 Patent No. 7,744,913 (“the ’913 patent”) are invalid, for
 these broadest claims can reasonably be read to include
 prior art. Whether viewed under section 102 or 103 of Title
 35, these claims are not patentable. I would sustain the
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 2                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 Board’s decision invalidating claim 1 of both patents. 1
 However, for the more detailed claims of these patents,
 written in dependent form, neither the Board nor the panel
 majority adequately determined patentability of their
 claimed inventions as a whole. I respectfully dissent from
 the panel majority’s affirmance of the Board’s invalidation
 of all the challenged claims.
                         DISCUSSION
     The Board held, and the majority agrees, that the Wal-
 lace reference (U.S. Patent No. 6,624,245) shows all the
 limitations of claim 1, the broadest claim, of the ’723 pa-
 tent, and that the combination of the Wallace and Ein-Gal
 references (U.S. Patent No. 6,210,314) shows all the limi-
 tations stated in the broadest claims. Claim 1 of the ’723
 patent is illustrative:
         1. A method of delivering a therapeutic dose of
             radiation to a patient comprising
             introducing a biocompatible, biodegradable
                 filler between an organ and a nearby
                 tissue to increase a distance between
                 the organ and the tissue, and
             treating the tissue with the therapeutic
                 dose of radiation so that the presence of
                 the filler causes the organ to receive
                 less of the dose of radiation compared
                 to the amount of the dose of radiation
                 the organ would receive in the absence
                 of the filler,
             wherein the filler is introduced as an inject-
                 able material and is a gel in the

     1 Palette Life Sciences, Inc. v. Incept LLC, 2021 WL
 1393447 (P.T.A.B. Apr. 13, 2021) (“Board ’723 Op.”); 2021
 WL 1395258 (P.T.A.B. Apr. 13. 2021) (“Board ’913 Op.”).
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                   3

                 patient, and wherein the filler is re-
                 movable by biodegradation in the pa-
                 tient.
     Incept argues that all the challenged claims of the ’723
 and ’913 patents, including the broadest claims, when con-
 strued in light of the specification and the prosecution his-
 tory, are distinguished from Wallace and thus are neither
 anticipated nor obvious. I respectfully dissent from the
 panel majority’s applications of the laws of anticipation
 and obviousness to invalidate all of the challenged claims
 of the ’723 and ’913 patents.
                               I
                        ANTICIPATION
     Anticipation requires that the invention was previ-
 ously known; that is, that the invention as claimed is not
 new. See, e.g., Net MoneyIN, Inc. v. VeriSign, Inc., 545 F.3d
 1359, 1371 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (to anticipate, a single reference
 must disclose the same invention, including each claimed
 limitation).
     My concern is with the invalidation of the dependent
 claims, without analysis of these claims’ additional limita-
 tions in view of the prior art. The panel majority states:
     In sum, we see no legal error in the Board’s antici-
     pation analysis for the ’723 patent, and substantial
     evidence supports the Board’s findings that Wal-
     lace discloses each element of claim 1 of the ’723
     patent, arranged as in that claim. We therefore af-
     firm the Board’s determination that claims 1, 6, 8–
     12, 14, 15, and 17–22 of the ’723 patent are antici-
     pated by Wallace.
 Maj. Op. at 10. The majority appears to hold that, when
 the broader claim is anticipated, the dependent claims are
 automatically anticipated. That is not the law. Each claim
 must be considered as a whole, including all its limitations.
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 4                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

     The panel majority observes that the Wallace reference
 generically discloses “multiple compositions,” id. at 7, de-
 scribed by Incept as embracing “millions, if not billions, of
 different possible compositions, each with different proper-
 ties,” id. at 6, quoting Incept Br. 34–35. A generic prior
 disclosure does not anticipate all of its embodiments, in-
 cluding novel specific embodiments, whether or not the
 facts are such that the generic disclosure may render the
 embodiment obvious.
      Precedent illustrates an assortment of considerations
 relevant to patentability of such discoveries as a new spe-
 cies of a known genus, but these precedents establish the
 different rule for anticipation in comparison to obvious-
 ness. For example, it is relevant whether the disclosure of
 a genus in the prior art was so specific that it would rea-
 sonably be understood that the genus encompasses all po-
 tential species, as in Eli Lilly & Co. v. Zenith Goldline
 Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 471 F.3d 1369, 1376 (Fed. Cir.
 2006). Compare Wasica Fin. GmbH v. Cont’l Auto. Sys.,
 Inc., 853 F.3d 1272, 1285–86 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (finding no
 anticipation by a genus disclosure that was “too ambigu-
 ous” and too broad for an ordinary skilled artisan to “at
 once envisage” every member of the genus).
     Here the majority expands the law of anticipation by
 holding that, if “Wallace expressly describes compositions
 that have the claimed characteristics of, and are used for
 the same displacement purpose as, the compositions re-
 ferred to in the ’723 patent claims challenged as antici-
 pated,” then it is irrelevant whether all the elements of the
 dependent claims are shown in the “anticipating” refer-
 ence. The majority concludes that “a skilled artisan would
 have understood that Wallace’s compositions had the same
 generic properties as those in the ’723 patent claims.” Maj.
 Op. at 7–8. However, Wallace does not support anticipa-
 tion of claim limitations that are not explicitly described in
 the reference.
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                  5

      This departure from the law of anticipation is manifest
 in the majority’s treatment of the limitation concerning “bi-
 odegradation.” Wallace states: “The polymer may include
 biodegradable segments and blocks, either distributed
 throughout the polymer’s molecular structure or present in
 a single block, as in a block copolymer.” Wallace, col.19,
 ll.3–9. But Wallace also states that polymers “generally,
 are ‘essentially nondegradable in vivo over a period of at
 least several months.’” Maj. Op. at 8, quoting Wallace, col.
 7, ll. 25-29. Nonetheless, the majority concludes that “sub-
 stantial evidence supports the Board’s findings that Wal-
 lace discloses each element of claim 1 of the ’723 patent”
 and thus anticipates the biodegradability of the Incept pol-
 ymers, Maj. Op. at 10, even though Wallace states that its
 compositions are “not readily degradable[,]” id. at 8, 9,
 quoting Wallace, col. 34, ll.11-14.
     The majority holds that Wallace’s teaching that a pol-
 ymer can have biodegradable segments “alone constitutes
 substantial evidence to support the Board’s finding” that
 the ’723 patent’s limitation of biodegradation is antici-
 pated. Id. at 8. This holding disregards Wallace’s state-
 ments of the difficulties and uncertainties of
 biodegradation, and concludes, without analysis, that since
 the broadest claim 1 of the ’723 patent is anticipated, the
 narrower dependent claims are also anticipated.
      The majority discusses some of the dependent claims,
 noting “dependent claim 16 of the ’723 patent and depend-
 ent claim 6 of the ’913 patent both of which provide biodeg-
 radability time limits,” although the majority also states
 that Incept did not separately argue the dependent claims
 before the board (noting that the record shows such argu-
 ment for at least some claims). Id. at 13. The majority
 recites that “Palette, however, identified disclosures in the
 prior art that teach each of the elements of these claims[.]”
 Id. Although the appeal briefing is sparse for the depend-
 ent claims, the majority acknowledges that “[f]or claim 16
 of the ’723 patent and claim 6 of the ’913 patent, Incept did
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 6                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 note that these claims require particular biodegradation
 properties.” Id. at 13 n.5. The majority misstates that In-
 cept did not argue any claims separately.
     For anticipation in patent law terms, an anticipating
 reference must describe the same invention in reasonable
 detail and clarity as appropriate to the subject matter. The
 panel majority recognizes that Wallace states that its pol-
 ymers are not degradable, yet the majority does not find
 fault with the Board’s statement that “Wallace’s teaching
 that all suitable polymers disclosed are ‘essentially
 nondegradable in vivo over a period of at least several
 months,’ . . . teaches, or at least suggests, that those poly-
 mers are essentially degradable in the body over a period
 of more than at least several months.” Id. at 12, quoting
 Board ’723 Op at *14, ’Board 913 Op. at *14. We are not
 told how a nondegradable polymer anticipates a degrada-
 ble polymer.
     Incept stresses Wallace’s recognition that most poly-
 mers are not biodegradable and that controlled degrada-
 tion is not easy. 2 The Board observed that petitioner
 Palette had “established persuasively, through the teach-
 ings of Wallace (U.S. Patent No. 6,624,245) and the testi-
 mony of [Palette’s expert] Dr. Dicker, that a POSITA would
 have known how to configure Wallace’s compositions to bi-
 odegrade within a predetermined time, such as less than
 approximately 90 days.” Maj. Op. at 13 n.5, quoting Board
 ’913 Op. at *14 n.13. However, neither the Board nor the
 panel majority explains how the cited references teach this
 knowledge.

     2   One need only peruse the news reports of fouling of
 oceans, rivers, and reefs with non-degradable polymers.
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 INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.                  7

     I would remand to the Board for determination, on the
 correct law, of whether the limitations of the challenged de-
 pendent claims are anticipated.
                              II
           OBVIOUSNESS – COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
     The law of obviousness has extensive precedent,
 providing guidance in a vast variety of technological situa-
 tions. The majority holds that for the claims that the Board
 found anticipated, this court need not consider the question
 of obviousness. I agree that claims properly invalidated
 need not be reviewed on other grounds. However, since the
 Board erred in finding all the claims anticipated, determi-
 nation of obviousness is appropriate and warrants remand
 to the Board for full consideration.
     On remand, it will also be appropriate to instruct the
 Board to correct its application of the objective factor of
 commercial success. Commercial success is one of the “sec-
 ondary considerations” that guide the ultimate determina-
 tion of obviousness. See Graham v. John Deere Co., 383
 U.S. 1 (1966). However, the majority adopts a new rule for
 commercial success, a rule that does not conform to routine
 market measures. It is undisputed that the Incept product
 experienced regular increases in annual commercial sales,
 and at the time of trial Incept had obtained 55% of the mar-
 ket for comparable products. Palette’s only criticism of In-
 cept’s commercial information was that Incept also gave
 free samples. The majority now holds that Incept’s com-
 mercial sales cannot be considered as a measure of com-
 mercial success because some product was provided free of
 charge. Maj. Op. at 15–16.
     It is not correct that because free samples were pro-
 vided, the commercial sales and market share data are not
 relevant measures of commercial success. The majority’s
 concern that “the Board did not require Incept to provide
 market share data,” id. at 16, does not warrant ignoring
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 8                   INCEPT LLC v. PALETTE LIFE SCIENCES, INC.

 the evidence of commercial sales and increases in market
 share. I respectfully dissent from the finding that there
 was not substantial evidence of commercial success, for
 commercial success is measured by commercial sales, not
 free samples. I would remand for the Board to apply the
 evidence of commercial activity and market growth to the
 determination of obviousness.
                         CONCLUSION
     I concur in the holdings of invalidity of claim 1 of both
 the ’723 and ’913 patents, for these claims, in their breadth,
 do not distinguish from the prior art. However, the subor-
 dinate claims of both patents were incorrectly analyzed un-
 der the laws of anticipation and obviousness. I would
 vacate the Board’s decisions as to the subordinate claims,
 and remand for redetermination of anticipation and obvi-
 ousness on correct law. From my colleagues’ contrary rul-
 ings, I respectfully dissent.