Court Opinion

ID: 9496429
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:26:18.995449+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:34.428839
License: Public Domain

RADER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While I endorse the results and reasoning of the majority, I write separately to present an alternative reason for concluding that contested claims 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the '549 patent are invalid. This court sustained the district court’s determination that those claims were invalid for lack of an enabling disclosure. The district court declined to reach a point raised by the special master, namely that prior art anticipated those claims. The record suggests that the special master was correct.
In this case, the prior art is the '549 patent’s grandparent U.S. Patent No. 4,675,214 (the '214 patent). The '549 patent is the third in a group of related patents with identical disclosures. The '214 patent was the first in that series. The '214 patent as filed disclosed that “silicon contents in the coating metal should not exceed about 0.5% by weight.” '214 patent, col. 5, 11. 30-31. The later '549 patent recites in the contested claims a coating metal containing “aluminum,” “aluminum alloys,” or “up to about 10% by weight silicon.” Thus, the later '549 patent added new matter to the original disclosure. Specifically, the later patent claimed much higher concentrations of silicon. Because the specification of the '214 patent as filed contains no support for this new matter, the applicant cannot claim priority back to the filing date of the earlier application that matured into the '214 patent.1
*1246Without a valid priority claim, the '214 patent is prior art. The '214 patent issued on June 23, 1987, over one year before the '549 patent’s filing date of November 22, 1988. The '549 patent’s claims encompass subject matter disclosed in the earlier '214 patent. As the special master acknowledged, the '214 patent anticipates the contested claims.
Thus, when an applicant files continuation applications, a patent issuing from an earlier application may anticipate claims containing new matter under 35 U.S.C. § 132. When the earlier application lacks any support in the written description for the new subject matter, the new matter cannot claim priority back to the original filing. In that case, a patent issuing from the earlier application may become anticipatory prior art, as occurred here.

. For the same reason, the contested claims do not benefit from the filing date of the intermediate '135 patent.